The Fire Chrysalis: Horoscopes April 13-19, 2026

I saw this info graphic about how dragonflies emerge from their “nymph” stage, and it was quite dramatic. It described the dragonfly larva as a black insect, living in the mud and water. Then, it climbs out of the water and breaks free from its shell, emerging as a beautiful dragonfly.

While dragonflies do not create a chrysalis, like butterflies do, but instead just burst free of their black shell, the intense Aries energy this week creates something of a fire chrysalis for all of us.

Is the insect truly a nymph or, at its core, a dragonfly? Is it truly a caterpillar or authentically a butterfly? Maybe every insect is both and rather than being one or the other, each insect, like each person, is metamorphic.

This week, the amount of discomfort you experience is directly tied to how willing you are to transform. If you are willing to transform, you will reduce the suffering of the process.

Photo by kalai venthan gopal on Unsplash (dragonfly)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• Venus in Taurus sextiles Jupiter in Cancer on Monday, April 13, 2026, at 1:20am Pacific. This is the most auspicious aspect happening while Venus is in Taurus, but it does come right on the heels of Mars conjunct Neptune the night before. Venus sextile Jupiter is a supportive aspect for beauty, comfort, and connection, and the Mars/Neptune conjunction reminds us that boundaries and authenticity are an important component to love and connection.

• Mercury in Pisces sextiles Uranus in Taurus on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at 10:10am Pacific. This is an interesting aspect because Mercury is uncomfortable in Pisces and the fogginess and ambiguity of Pisces makes communication and thinking difficult, but support from Uranus brings a bright moment of clarity.

• Mercury goes into Aries on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at 8:21pm Pacific (I am taking this as a personal birthday present because this is my birthday, and I’m soooo ready for Mercury to be out of Pisces). Yesss! Finally! Mercury goes into a sign of bluntness, truth, courage, and even brutality. I’m so ready for the ambiguity and passive aggressiveness of Mercury in Pisces to pass!

• The Sun in Aries goes conjunct with Chiron on Thursday, April 16, 2026, at 8:10am Pacific. This is a vulnerable aspect in which the part of the sky representing our conscious identity, bumps up against our wounding. This tests our ability to be present with vulnerability and share our wounding in order to help others.

• Mars in Aries sextiles Pluto in Aquarius on Thursday, April 16, 2026, at 11:55am Pacific. Note that this happens as the Sun is conjunct Chiron. This brings a profound and tangible, though very likely not comfortable, transformation.

• Mercury in Aries goes conjunct with Neptune on Thursday, April 16, 2026, at 7:01pm Pacific. While this brings Mercury back to a space of confusion, it also can ask us to think beyond what we understand with our five senses. What information does spirit offer you that might support the transformation you are experiencing.

• The New Moon in Aries happens on Friday, April 17, 2026, at 4:51am Pacific. This New Moon is conjunct Chiron and copresent with the other transformative aspects of the 16th. A New Moon is a time to set intention, and this New Moon creates a profound space to consider how your woundings around what it means to show up authentically as yourself can heal others.

• Mercury in Aries sextiles Pluto in Aquarius on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at 1:34pm Pacific. Lest you thought the profound transits of this week were over, think again! This is a supportive aspect for deep thinking and communication about deep issues. The transformation happening in your Aquarius house is ready to take form in your communications. Write, chat, or otherwise communicate about what this transformation means.

• Mars in Aries goes conjunct Saturn on Sunday, April 19, 2026, at 3:43pm Pacific. Is the action you are taking aligned with who you truly are or are you taking action to prove something? Either way, this aspect will show you the consequences of your actions. Consequences are neutral (we love them if they are what we wanted, and we hate them if they’re not, but those reactions are ours.) Take this as information, even if it’s frustrating. How can your actions become more aligned to who you truly are?

• The Sun goes into Taurus on Sunday, April 19, 2026, at 6:39pm Pacific. Time to get springtime cozy, plant your garden, get a pedicure, have a fight just to out-stubborn someone. Taurus is practical, deliberate, earthy energy, and after all this action in Aries, we’ll probably be ready for a little stability.

Thanks for reading Fourth Cup Astrology’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

These are the principles to consider for the week of April 13, 2026. It is worth taking a look at both your rising and sun sign horoscopes (visit astro.com to find your rising sign):

Aries: A spark of flame never pretends to be anything other than what it is, but it always takes a flexible shape. In the same way, your enthusiasm can be a light in a dark room, a warm fireplace on a cold night, or a forest fire. This is wonderful, and also sometimes people think you are a forest fire, when you are actually giving candle. That misunderstanding tells you something about how your social groups are transforming, not how you need to conform. When people project their limitations onto you, you can still deeply know who you are, whether or not you communicate it to the other person.

Taurus: Spiritual abuse happens when one person uses spiritual authority, usually given to them by in institution, to diminish or extract from someone else’s spiritual experience. You are sovereign in your spiritual experience, and that includes the space you occupy. While people will likely find you charming on the outside this week and be magnetized to you, under the surface you are undergoing a profound spiritual transformation. Being authentic in your spiritual experience is as important as being authentic in your external life.

Gemini: When you light a candle, all of the ingredients matter, but without a wick, there is no candle. This is an analogy for how you might want to handle your social groups this week. You are the wick that makes the candle what it is, and if you aren’t healthy, the whole candle does not burn. So, when people need your time and energy, check in with the core of yourself first. If it is healthy for you, even if it is vulnerable, let the candle burn (meaning say yes to your people). And also, that does not mean you need to let yourself be absorbed into the group. Maintain your integrity as a separate person with your own boundaries.

Cancer: A parasocial relationship happens when we feel close to someone (usually but not always a celebrity), idealize who they are, and attribute a sense of closeness to them based on who we imagine them to be. A parasocial relationship is a fan, not a friend. I say this because you may be having this kind of experience in your career or public facing life, either where you are idealizing someone or something or they are idealizing you. The antidote to toxic parasocial pressure is authenticity and vulnerability and that is only possible with boundaries. Practice saying “no” to parasocial pressure at work and say “yes” to what is authentic to you.

Leo: Our ideals are typically formed by the cultural context we live in, but there is a component of what is purely us to what we idealize. You bring a level of innocence, and maybe even literalness, to your ideals, and when life does not conform to your ideals, it can feel like abandonment or betrayal. This week, pay attention to wounding you have experienced in your ideals. This area is going through metamorphosis and the vulnerability of your wounding is part of that process. In the end, if you allow the process, your ideals will be even more authentic to who you truly are or you will see consequences you don’t like in your external life.

Virgo: Our closest accomplices and partners are ideally a support system we can lean back on. For you, though, you may have the tendency to blindly trust others will support you and leap before you look, expecting support to be there. This week brings a vulnerable metamorphosis around your boundaries related to other people’s support and your integrity in how you interact with other people’s money and values. The best you can do is be vulnerable and authentic, understanding that your closest accomplices may have different (and also valid) values than yours.

Libra: Honest and clear boundaries allow us to be more vulnerable, they do not push people away. The woundings you have experienced in your closest accomplice and partnership relationships are going through a metamorphosis this week. On the other side, it will become clear where you are enforcing boundaries out of authenticity versus where you are trying to impose control or accrue attention as substitutes for safety. Being the center of attention is your birthright in your partnerships, and also when you are safe enough to be vulnerably authentic, it is truly you who is the center, not a fictional character you created.

Scorpio: Acknowledging a health issue and receiving a diagnosis is only the first step toward healing; it is not healing in and of itself. Your birthright includes centering yourself in your health, daily habits, and routines, and this week the wounding you’ve experienced in those areas undergoes a metamorphosis. Listen to your body for what you need rather than losing yourself in the expectations of other people. Abandoning your health and body, even if you do so in order prevent other people from abandoning you, guarantees abandonment. Centering your health lets other people do that too.

Sagittarius: In entrepreneurial circles, they say you have to “climb cringe mountain” in order to build a business. This speaks to how the creative projects we put into the world are often build on failed experimentation and you have to make embarrassing mistakes in order to find out what works. The same is true in non-entrepreneurial creative projects, and even with children. What you put out into the world is vulnerable, and you have wounding related to that. This week asks you to transform that wounding into something authentic that serves other people. At the end of the week, your external results will show you how authentic you have been.

Capricorn: The cliche says that home is where the heart is, but for you home is where you are the center of attention and the most able to show up as your authentic self. The woundings you have experienced around home and family are going through a metamorphosis this week. The results you get at the end of the week have a direct relationship with how much integrity, vulnerability, and authenticity you show in your actions and in how you handle boundaries.

Aquarius: The word “coven” was likely not used until 1921, when Margaret Murray coined the term in later-discredited and exaggerated descriptions of a European “witch cult.” Nevertheless, it is common for pagan circles to refer to close-knit affinity groups as “covens,” which derives from the Latin word for “covenant.” Whether you identify as pagan or not, you likely have close community. In that area of your life, the woundings you’ve experienced are undergoing transformation this week. The results you see at the end of the week or next week will show you how authentic you have been in your closest circle, especially related to your boundaries.

Pisces: This maybe sounds kooky, but I like to say that when you find yourself in scare-city, you should take the bus to curio-city instead. Get it? Scarcity to curiosity? So clever if I do say so. This week, your wounding around money and what you truly value is undergoing metamorphosis. The more authentic you are related to your boundaries around money and your values, the more you will see results that are correct for you at the end of this week and into next week.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you like these horoscopes, don’t forget to hit the like button and share them with someone who might get something out of them.

If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a natal chart reading here.

Thanks for reading Fourth Cup’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Horoscope Principles for the week of February 16, 2026

If the past couple of weeks have been destabilizing, this week asks us to deeply question what is real and what is superstition.

Intuition is never based in fear or anxiety.

Insight never asks anyone to compromise their integrity or safety.

Test out the results you get when you are in a space of personal sovereignty, versus when you are acting out of superstition and fear. This week starts eclipse season and Saturn conjoins Neptune in Aries. Unstable boundaries and belief systems fall. When in doubt listen to what your body needs right now.

Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash (solar eclipse)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• Mercury in Pisces trines Jupiter in Cancer on Monday, February 16, 2026, at 1:31pm Pacific. I’m sorry to say this because I think this phrase is used to do a lot of harm, but this transit is a good one for capturing the power of positive thinking and communication. If you know what you don’t want, how can you turn that into a list of what you do want? Write down what you do want to manifest and speak it into being.

• The solar eclipse in Aquarius takes place on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, at 4:01am Pacific. The Sun is also separating from a square with Uranus in Taurus in this eclipse. Eclipses are like walking into a room with the lights on, when suddenly the power goes out. You might hit your shins on the bed or bang your head on an open cabinet. Pause your spells and manifestations and listen to what your body needs right now.

• The Sun goes into Pisces on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at 7:51am Pacific. The Sun in Pisces contributes to the overall sense of blurred lines between what is real and not real. Pisces is connected to spirit and the collective unconscious, but not necessarily to the facts of ugly reality.

• Saturn and Neptune go exactly conjunct (finally!!) in Aries on Friday, February 20, 2026, at 8:53am Pacific. This breaks down any unstable institutions and boundaries. Is it AI or is it real? How do you tell? This conjunction is associated with the Satanic panic and McCarthyism. Before you fall into paranoid fear, check in with your neighbors. Get to know the people around you. Not everyone is in the Epstein files, even if it seems like it.

• Mars in Aquarius sextiles Chiron in Aries on Sunday, February 22, 2026, at 8:13am Pacific. Healing takes rest, and healing also requires action. The planet of action is in a supportive aspect with the planet of the wounded healer. This may poke at our wounds, and that poke asks us to use them to offer healing to others.

• Venus in Pisces trines Jupiter in Cancer on Sunday, February 22, 2026, at 12:01pm Pacific. This provides some very needed softness and beauty to the instability around us, like a lotus flower growing out of the mud. Finding joy, even in the midst of horrific information, gives us a direction for the new world we want to build.

• Pluto continues in Aquarius.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign in the week of February 16, 2026 (visit astro.com to find your rising sign, and if you don’t know your birth time, it is fine to use your sun sign, but maybe check out the horoscope for signs that might be your rising because one might resonate with you):

Aries Rising: You are not better than anyone else; you are not worse than anyone else. The boundaries of who you are and what you have relied on for your identity may feel like they are crumbling. Anything that is breaking down now was never truly part of you, but only a cage you were living in and mistaking for a home. Your real home is expanding, and that expansion might include connection to your ancestors. If this feels scary, check in with what your body needs. Things may feel unstable with your friend groups early in the week, but that should calm down later in the week.

Taurus Rising: If you are punishing to yourself, you will be punishing to other people; if you are kind to yourself, this will show in the external world as well. The Saturn/Neptune conjunction is taking place in your 12th whole sign house, which is the house of the unconscious, so the barriers that are broken in this transit may not be immediately obvious to you. But, they still matter. How you treat yourself when you are alone matters. Your local community and social groups are experiencing relief and beauty after a couple of years of grief and difficulty. How do you treat the friend you love the most? Apply that to yourself too. Early in the week is destabilizing for career, though, so wait until the Sun goes into Pisces for major career decisions.

Gemini Rising: Boundaries are meant to keep you safe and promote healthy, interdependent relationships. Any boundaries in your friend and social groups that are punishing or bureaucratic are likely to crumble during this time, and this may feel unstable or even scary. It is hard to tell where your real supports are. This breakdown is meant to test the soundness of your structures so that you have boundaries that are authentic to you. Look to your career and public facing life, as well as your personal values for hope and joy when this process feels confusing. Not a good week for long-distance travel, though.

Cancer Rising: When you struggle in an undertow, you drown. Your boundaries and supports in your career are being tested right now, and any time you spend focusing on what has harmed you or feelings of helplessness will create more of that. Rigid and unyielding boundaries are likely to fall away during this time, but the boundaries that are important to you, the ideals and dreams you have about your career that truly resonate with you, will last. Spend some time dreaming about what you do want the world to look like this week. You’re more likely to create it that way. It’s also a good week for long-distance travel for you, but not a good week to finish up your taxes.

Leo Rising: Most of the time reality is more trustworthy than dreams, but sometimes, dreams have more insight and peace to offer than reality. This week, the eclipse is taking place in your 7th house of partnership, square Uranus, which has been disrupting your career since 2018. This may accelerate changes, but it also could bring misunderstandings with your partners. If you are frustrated and agitated, take a pause and a nap. The barriers you have lived in related to higher education, ideals, belief systems, and long-distance travel are crumbling, but your unconscious and connection to spirit have insight to offer about what is next.

Virgo Rising: Boundaries are healthy whether or not times are stressful. Boundaries are not revenge against someone for doing things you don’t like. This week you get some reprieve from the confusion and consequences you have been facing in your partnerships, but that does not mean it’s time to drop all of your boundaries or enmesh with other people’s trauma. Your daily routine or health may experience some disruption and trigger the tension between your ideals or your love of long-distance travel and your health and routine. This will pass, but be cautious and take extra care of your body at least until after the first week in March.

Libra Rising: Make beauty a habit; make caring for your boundaries a skincare routine. Any boundaries or rules you have built around partnership that do not feel authentic to you will likely collapse under the Saturn/Neptune conjunction this week, but they were not built to stand. The eclipse is happening in your house of children and creative projects, which could mean you run into technical difficulties or that what you create feels overshadowed by your emotional processing. If you incorporate into your creative projects the woundings in partnership you’ve experienced, you may be better able to get momentum.

Scorpio Rising: Healing requires action, not just time. If there are adjustments you can make to your home or within your family that serve your daily habits and health, this is a good week to do this for yourself and also for other people. Your home and partnerships have a rocky start to the week, and so this may require you to acknowledge your impatience, and also take a break. Looking beyond your local community to broader ideals, higher education, and long-distance travel brings expansion to the beauty and healing happening in your 5th house of creative projects and children.

Sagittarius Rising: What benefits your partners benefits your home and family. While your home has been going through a major time of confusion and consequences, this week brings some healing and beauty in that area of your life. Check in with your siblings and local community to make sure your people are safe and healthy, as that area of your chart is taking some hits, and the eclipse can bring disruption and difficulties. You have healing actions to offer in your local community from wounding around your creative projects and children.

Capricorn Rising: A home built on a firm foundation can withstand a hurricane. And this week, it may have to. The Saturn/Neptune conjunction is happening in your 4th house of home and family, a space where you like things to be straightforward and simple. This conjunction is anything but simple, and it is here to force you to consider what structures in your home life are authentic to you, and what are rules you made up for the sake of it. Don’t let feelings of scarcity overtake how you handle your money and abundance this week. Use the woundings you’ve experienced in your homelife to provide guidance related to your money and values. Your partnerships, siblings, and local community are spaces of beauty and abundance this week, so when all else fails, lean there.

Aquarius Rising: If you need a nap, take a nap. You can’t outsmart tired. This is a good week to be careful if you go out to protest, make sure you have followed all of the recommendations (take a gas mask, memorize a safe person’s number, write other numbers on your arm, bring water and snacks, etc.). This is a great week for you to contribute to tearing down unjust systems in your local community. Do so in a way that serves you, not in a way that fuels the mechanisms of oppression with your anger. When in doubt, trust your values to give you guidance.

Pisces Rising: If your past work on budgets and managing your money have not been authentic to you, you will know that this week. That is not a failure, it is just an invitation to bring more authenticity to what you value and your money. How you show up this week as a person is graced with some luck and beauty, and this is some needed healing after the work you’ve done around the boundaries of who you are. If you experience sleep disruption or anxious thoughts, ask yourself what their gift is and allow them to pass without debating them.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you like these horoscopes, don’t forget to hit the like button and share them with someone who might get something out of them. It boosts the algorithm and so more people might see them!

If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Out of the Broom Closet, into the Fire

Saturn and Neptune into Aries and Protection Spells

Yesterday, Saturn joined Neptune in Aries, which marks a time of structural collapse and confusion around what is real and not real. The last time Saturn and Neptune were conjunct was in 1989. Most notably, this was when the Berlin Wall fell. Saturn/Neptune conjunctions are also associated with spiritual panic and witch hunts (the McCarthy trials and Satanic panic happened under this conjunction).

For many of us, Neptune’s transit through Pisces (2011-2026), has been a time of embracing spiritual sovereignty, whether that means deconstructing Christian and capitalist narratives; embracing personal relationship with spirit through tarot, astrology, or witchcraft; diving into the otherworldly magic of science and technology; or any number of other esoteric and magickal practices.

Massive amounts of people, including me, have come out of the broom closet, outing ourselves as witches.

Photo by Charlie Harutaka on Unsplash

Then, the transit into Aries tests our authenticity. Are our spiritual practices cute and fun or are they part of who we truly are? Are we grounded in their personal meaning for us or are we superstitious and acting out of fear?

Saturn is angry in Aries, perhaps even impatient, and so the planet of consequences brings them quickly. If you act in integrity, you get consequences in line with that integrity, but if you act outside of it, Saturn lets you know right away through your body’s signals and your external results. Aries is a fire sign, and there is no need to touch the stove a second time before learning that it burns.

Photo by Tobias Rademacher on Unsplash

I am in a group online where I have seen a number of posts about “spiritual warfare,” something that I grew up thinking a lot about. The concept of spiritual warfare means that there are unseen threats that might undermine us, and through adherence to certain spiritual practices we can fight those threats.

In my view, this is an essentially misguided concept at least in part because it positions spirituality as potentially threatening, and outside of us, and offers solutions that feel tricky.

Truth is never tricky.

The unseen is only drawn to you if it corresponds with you. And I do not mean that as pressure to raise your vibration or pretend to be positive. Instead it is an invitation to deeply learn what corresponds with you, what is correct for you, and release anything that is not.

This requires boundaries and understanding who you are, which is harder than it sounds and completely worth it.

Healthy boundaries protect us from what is not correct for us, whether it is in the 3D reality or outside of it.

Here are a few ways to craft a basic protection spell to get started.

Protection Spells

Energetic boundaries:

• Find a space that both is safe in reality and also feels safe to you. This can be your bed if that is a safe space.

• With your eyes open or closed (whatever is comfortable and safe for you), pay attention to how the space feels on your skin. Your skin is the boundary between the inside of your body and the external world. Energetic boundaries are like skin but for your energy body.

• Picture or feel roots growing out of the lowest part of your body and into the ground.

• Picture or feel the bubble of the space around you. Notice how far your senses can perceive the space around you. If you close your eyes, can you sense what is happening in the room around you? Can you sense what is happening beyond the room you are in?

• Picture or feel the bubble of space around you becoming an actual bubble or an egg shell. What is inside the egg shell is yours, what is outside of it belongs to the universe. Your guides or the bubble itself evict any energy that is not the right fit for you.

• Now, picture or feel the bubble filling with whatever color your body and spirit crave.

• Sit inside that energy like you would a bath.

Communication Boundaries:

• Think of the person who most challenges your boundaries, comes into your space, or expects energetic or emotional labor from you.

• In your mind or out loud, say to that person three times, “No,” “Leave,” “Ew stop,” or “Go away.” Imagine yourself walking away from that person without inviting a response from them.

• Notice any objections that come up in your mind. Are there spaces where your mind thinks it is dangerous for you to enforce a boundary? Are there spaces where your mind thinks you need to comply or compromise your boundaries in order to be safe? Journal about the objections that come up or talk through them with a trusted person.

• What would the benefits of enforcing a boundary be for you?

• Do those benefits make it worth enforcing your boundaries despite your fears? Why/why not?

• If you choose not to enforce your boundaries, how can you take responsibility for the consequences to yourself and others?

Circle casting (attribution goes to the Cabot Kent Hermetic Temple for this):

• Find a wand, which can be a stick or kitchen spoon, but should be wood the length of your inner elbow to the tip of your longest finger. In a meditative state, tell the wand that you clear it of all positive and negative energies and forces that may come to do you harm. Then, tell the wand that you charge it to catalyze your thoughts and deeds to your will.

• Walking clockwise in a circle, say, “I cast this circle to protect me from all positive or negative energies or forces that may come to do me harm.”

• Walk two more times clockwise, and on the final turn, say, “The circle is cast. So shall it be.”

• Inside of the circle, do whatever magical or personal work you want to do. You can cast a circle before you go to sleep if you have disrupted sleep, too. The only problem here is if you have pets, they may break your circle and make it less effective.

• When your work is done, walk counterclockwise in the same circle and say, “The circle is open and remains unbroken. I send it out to the cosmos to do my bidding.” When I do my morning thought work and cast it as a spell, I say, “I send it out to the cosmos to contribute to healing myself and the collective unconscious.”

Protection potion (I follow Laurie Cabot’s protection potion from her Book of Shadows):

• 1/8 Ounce of Almond Oil

• 10 Drops of Patchouli Oil

• 10 Drops of Frankincense Oil

• 10 Drops of Myrrh Oil

• ¼ Teaspoon of Mandrake Root

• ¼ Teaspoon of Sea Salt

• Pinch of hair from your familiar

If you do not have these ingredients, you can use salt water as protection potion in a pinch. Tell the potion that its job is to provide protection for you and all it touches.

Boundaries and Harm. The principles of witchcraft say that you should do what you want, provided it does not cause harm. Sometimes people believe that if we enforce our boundaries and make choices that are healthy for us, it harms them.

This can feel confusing because we do not want to harm anyone, but it is also not appropriate to comply with harm to ourselves.

In that way it is important to remember these rules:

1. Suffering creates more suffering, but safety creates more safety. You being safe does not cause harm to someone else.

2. Putting energy toward someone who causes harm supports that harm.

3. You may have a duty of care to someone vulnerable, like a child or animal, but a caregiving relationship has inherent power imbalance. Caregiving relationships are not mutual or romantic. Most often caregiving relationships with peers cause harm on both sides.

4. From a space of safety, you are better able to offer support to others. Your safety is your responsibility and your first duty to your body.

Thanks for reading and bringing your magick to the world! If reality feels confusing and consequences feel unfair, ground into your energy and the information you get from your body. What is one safe thing you can do today?

Horoscope Principles for the week of February 9, 2026

This week, continuing the energies of last week and even the recent months, tests how we handle chaos.

When we struggle against chaos, it creates more chaos. Then, chaos acts like an undertow, sucking us under the waves because of our struggle.

The fifth Hermetic principle, the principle of rhythm, says that everything ebbs and flows, and chaos is no different. This week tests when we release control and when we struggle. What results do you get with each?

Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash (waves over roiling water and rocks)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• Venus goes into Pisces on February 10, 2026, at 2:18am Pacific. This brings some healing and beauty to an area of life where Saturn and Neptune have been breaking down institutions.

• Mercury in Pisces goes into its pre-shadow on Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at 2:12pm Pacific. Mercury goes retrograde usually two or three times a year, and this is a time when physically, if you astronomically look at the sky, it looks like Mercury is going backwards. The pre-shadow marks the point that Mercury will return to when it goes retrograde. What happens now may indicate issues that will come up once Mercury goes retrograde, but we’re also experiencing disruptions related to Uranus, so there’s a lot of blame to go around.

• The Sun in Aquarius follows the path that Mercury and Venus took last week, sextiling Chiron in Aries on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, at 5:46pm, and then squaring Uranus in Taurus on Sunday, February 15, at 9:01pm Pacific. The sextile to Chiron offers some healing energy to a space where you’ve felt wounded, but sometimes offers of healing themselves can be triggering. The square to Uranus causes overall disruption, tension, and instability.

• Saturn goes into Aries on Friday, February 13, 2026, at 4:11pm Pacific, getting ready to conjoin Neptune on Friday, February 20. This tests what is real and not real. What spiritual truths are more real than the material world? What that we perceive with our five senses is more important than spirituality? This conjunction is at the first degree of the zodiac, breaking down old institutions and, hopefully, allowing something new to download.

• Pluto continues in Aquarius, and Jupiter continues in Cancer.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign in the week of February 9, 2026 (visit astro.com to find your rising sign, and if you don’t know your birth time, it is fine to use your sun sign, but maybe check out the horoscope for signs that might be your rising because one might resonate with you):

Aries Rising: Superheroes only need to exist in a world where we center harm and violence. While you may, like me, be someone who loves superheroes, this week think about what you love about them. If you could create an ideal world, what would the coolest version of you look like? Would that world include violence if it did not have to? This week your social groups are at odds with your changing and evolving values. The boundaries of who you are are shifting. Rewrite your future as the story of a superhero in a world without violence.

Taurus Rising: Integrity means that the parts of who you are come together to make a whole. This week how you show up in your public life is in tension with the changes you’ve experienced around your overall identity since 2018. While your social groups get some much needed healing, you are moving into a phase where your engagement with spirituality and the unconscious experience tangible consequences. Consequences are not inherently bad or good. They just are the tangible results of our actions, including our unconscious thinking.

Gemini Rising: Fast thinking is no better than slow thinking. Chaos is no better or worse than stability. These are just ways of being. You may be someone who prefers quick, witty banter and action, but because your chart is ruled by Mercury, the next couple of months asks you to slow down and even examine what it would be like to value your dreams as much as your reality. Don’t lose the thread on the real world, but examine what mistakes and misunderstandings bring up for you. You are entering a period where you will need to make decisions about what you tolerate in your friend and social groups. Dreaming about an ideal life and making friends with mishap might be a way to start that process.

Cancer Rising: Every person has the capacity for psychic perception, but not every person wants it. You are in a time period that asks you whether you want to limit your understanding to your five senses, or if you want to trust intuitive and psychic abilities beyond your five senses. If you hesitate to use your perceptive abilities out of fear, just remember that you are sovereign in the space you occupy. Seriously study energetic boundaries and personal sovereignty. If you lean in to the invitation to trust your intuition and perception, just remember to validate the information you get spiritually with the material world to the extent you can. If you call in an object, does it come? If you get information about a person, can they confirm it? Trust and verify.

Leo Rising: Institutional betrayal is a term coined by Dr. Jennifer Freyd to describe the experience of reporting harm to an institution and having the institution respond by victim blaming. You are entering a season where the higher education or spiritual institutions you belong to are crumbling, and it is hard to know what you can trust in terms of your ideals. The instability and changes you have faced in your career and public-facing life since 2018 continues to be activated this week. If you lean into the expansion you are having related to your unconscious and spirituality, there are gifts and beauty available there.

Virgo Rising: Good communication requires curiosity and openness, not perfection. You have been experiencing confusion and the breakdown of boundaries in your partnerships for the past couple of years, and that is changing. This week offers some healing related to that, and also avoid the tendency to be overly optimistic in your communications. If you’re not sure you understand someone else, ask the extra questions. Write things down if you’re not sure. This area will clear up after a couple of months, but until then, go slow to go fast.

Libra Rising: You can have nice things. This week your creative projects may be in tension with your partners’ resources, or how you think about and enjoy sex may be in tension with instability in how your partner or partners handle sex. That period of instability will start to pass after February. If it feels confusing to know what is real and not real in your partnerships, look to the external results. You are visited this week by some beauty and sweetness in your daily life. Even if other spaces of your life feel chaotic, it is okay to appreciate what is beautiful and sweet.

Scorpio Rising: This may sound like bullshit to you, but it is through giving up control that we find the spaces we can truly influence. There is tension between your home and family life and the changes you’ve been going through in your partnerships. Much of that may feel chaotic and out of your control. The tighter you cling to rigid rules and expectations, the more likely things are to break. If you can ease up and lean into some dreaming around creative projects and beauty, you might be able to find spaces of influence.

Sagittarius Rising: Paintings never look like our imagination; books never quite capture the dream of the author; movies are a shallow reflection of the stories that inspire them. And, yet, these are some of the greatest sources of beauty and joy we have in the world. You are entering a phase where boundaries are torn down in the area of your creative life and reality becomes unclear. If you are using AI in your creative projects, research the consequences of that choice first, not just to the environment but also to your ownership of your projects.

Capricorn Rising: Good boundaries create healthy relationships. If you have been compromising your boundaries at home or idealizing your home life, you are about to enter a phase of life where you experience the consequences of that. Your money and values continue to be in tension with your creative projects and children this month. But, if you see some beauty and peace in your local community, enjoy it.

Aquarius Rising: Sometimes transformation is not changing from one thing to another, but uncovering something that was already there. The transformation you are going through and how you show up in your everyday life is in tension with the changes that have happened in your home and family. This may feel like you are the trigger of chaos or like you are the victim of it, but really this process is uncovering something about who you are and have the potential to be.

Pisces Rising: A budget is meant to be a structure that supports your most thriving financial success, not a prison for your money. Likewise understanding your personal values is meant to be a way to put language around the beliefs you hold most deeply. You are entering a time that asks you to hold ideals and boundaries around your money and values. This requires being able to dream and also being able to pay attention to the practical reality of those dreams. If people are drawn to you this week, take it as a sign you are on the right track and release any self-sabotaging thoughts.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you like these horoscopes, don’t forget to hit the like button and share them with someone who might get something out of them. It boosts the algorithm and so more people might see them!

If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Animal Communication

A week of instability, connection, and animal communication

Last week saw Mercury and Venus aspecting Chiron and Uranus, and this brought out release of additional Epstein emails (even though we still haven’t seen all of them) as well as racist and sexist ranting from people in power.

While shifting the way we treat girls and how white people handle the narcissism of other white people are absolutely key to creating safe community, this week in my life, the issue of what happens when the government kidnaps our neighbors was front and center.

I was walking my dog, Pema, on Wednesday, when we came across a very sweet pup, who had no collar and ended up coming home with us. You might remember, last week I had a dream that featured a very stable dog, and so it was interesting to come across one.

EDIT: We found Cleo’s family soon after this! They are a sweet family who loves her! They call her Justice, so either my animal communication needs work or her full name is Justice Cleo. I like to think the latter.

Picture of the visitor pup lying down and looking wistful.

I asked the sweet pup what her name is, and in my mind I heard, clear as day, the name Cleo.

I took her to be checked out at the vet. When the vet tech was examining her, she said, “Come here, Cleo,” and Cleo responded right away. The vet tech asked, “So you know for sure her name is Cleo?” She was confused because I had told her Cleo had no collar and we confirmed she was not chipped.

“No,” I said, “I just made it up, but she seems to respond to it, so I think it’s the first confirmation I have that I’m a pet psychic.”

The vet tech looked at me like I was a ghost, “She sure does!” she said. “Let me know if you make that a thing because I have some animals that could use communication.” So, I might take her up on that.

The vet who checked her out for me says that she has clearly been loved. When she got to me, she had some scabbing from fleas and was very hungry and thirsty, so she was likely out for at least a couple of days before we found her. It made me think a lot about what the circumstances of her family might be.

Meanwhile, Pema is not thrilled to have a friend staying over, but I think it is a growth experience she needs.

Picture of Pema sitting on the couch and looking at me like I’ve disappointed her, while Cleo lies on the floor being completely mellow. My piles of books are in the background.

While it is fun to work on my pet psychic skills, on a more serious note, it has occurred to me, and maybe to you, that Cleo’s family may be unhoused or undocumented. You don’t have to be a pet psychic to look at her face and notice that she’s looking sad and serious. The vet’s comment that someone has clearly loved her, combined with Cleo’s very obedient and easy nature, leads me to believe that her separation from her family was not voluntary.

While the displacement of pets is not as graphic as the murders, rapes, and child abuse that we are seeing from the government kidnapping people from the streets, Cleo’s appearance in my life has made me think about the ripple effects of imprisoning people related to identity and status. I do not know whether her family is unhoused or undocumented, but assuming they are, their situation may be more harsh and their experience of loss more profound than Cleo’s right now. We send thoughts, postcards, calls to representatives, and every other action toward their safety and health.

Cleo cuddling me on the couch and giving you an intense look as if to say, you should make sure your neighbors are safe right now, regardless of their housing or document status.

I am just starting my animal communication journey, and right now I mostly communicate with them using my voice, not my psychic skills. And, I am also somewhat persuaded that most, if not all, people may have access to communicating effectively with animals if we want to use that skill.

One way to practice psychic animal communication is to wait until the animal is away from you in another room, then imagine sending them a picture showing them to come to see you. If they come to you, that is some evidence that it worked! If it doesn’t work, that does not necessarily mean anything other than to keep trying in different ways. And, as always, take the data!

Horoscope Principles for the week of February 2, 2026

I had a dream last week that involved visiting my family, who had a dog that was just completely reliable, stable, and reassuring. While I was sitting with my family, I looked outside and realized someone had put the room we were in on a semi truck and were driving us away. When we got where we were going, I was annoyed because all of our things were in a warehouse mixed with other people’s things, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find the dog.

When I went to the warehouse, though, the dog was right there, looking reassuring, and wearing a fancy collar. He was not worried at all. There was a woman who was throwing people’s possessions away, some of them mine, and I started singing a song to her about how much I hated her. In the dream, the song I was singing was a TikTok jingle, and she sang the last line back to me because we both hated each other.

I say this in part because I encourage TikTok jinglers to create a song I can sing when I hate people. I would be forever grateful.

In part, I say this because this week is one that invites us to change our minds and relationships. It brings shifts and invites us to acknowledge the very real, life altering, and harmful instability so many of us are experiencing who are being deported, sent to concentration camps, or attacked by federal agents. In my dream, I had the privilege of being unattached to stability and being present with the dog I cared about. And, still, I hated the person disrupting and disrespecting my life.

In my dream, there was nothing shameful or violent about my hatred. It was normal and natural. And I knew I could be flexible with change.

Photo by Liam McGarry on Unsplash (capturing a dog that looks almost exactly like the dog in my dream)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• Mercury in Aquarius sextiles Chiron in Aries on Monday, February 2, 2026, at 4:32pm Pacific. Then, Venus in Aquarius sextiles Chrion on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, at 2:23pm Pacific. These bring some healing and kindness to the spaces where our woundings have been very triggered over the past couple of months, especially around communication and relationships.

• Uranus stations direct at 27 degrees Taurus on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, at 6:33pm Pacific. Then, Mercury squares Uranus on Thursday, February 5, 2026, at 4:13am. Finally, Venus squares Uranus on Sunday, February 8, 2026, at 1:48am. Uranus is associated with social change, queerness (only ever used here as a compliment), and instability. Uranus is coming to the end of its time in Taurus, where the most rooted, grounded, stable areas of your life have experienced earthquakes since 2018. Mercury and Venus are both in Aquarius which is also a fixed sign and can be rigid in pursuit of innovation. Mercury asks you to allow your mind to change, rather than engaging in endless mental debate. Venus asks you to feel beyond the expectations of what you’ve been taught it means to be in relationship. Uranus goes into Gemini in April this year, and so this is the last of the Mercury and Venus squares to visit this space in your chart for the rest of your life. Make the most of allowing change in these fixed spaces of your chart.

• Mercury goes into Pisces on Friday, February 6, 2026, at 2:48pm Pacific. After some high-speed thinking, this slows our thinking and communication way down and can create confusion. Later this month, Mercury will go retrograde in Pisces, which brings even more communication and travel snafus. Mercury in Pisces is connected to the intent and the collective unconscious connection behind communication, not the specifics. It’s an uncomfy space for Mercury, but if we are willing to allow misunderstandings, give ourselves second chances, and trust our understanding of the deeper meaning behind communications, we can flow with the transit instead of drowning in it.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign in the week of February 2, 2026 (visit astro.com to find your rising sign, and if you don’t know your birth time, it is fine to use your sun sign, but maybe check out the horoscope for signs that might be your rising because one might resonate with you):

Aries Rising: It is not necessarily selfish to have standards and know what you like, but it is selfish to hoard in service of scarcity. In your social life you may be drawn to weirdos and creatives, which causes some tension with your stable, and maybe even traditional, standards around what you value. Just remember that this is not an either or. There is room for weirdness and stability. You can be a fancy punk if that is right for you. And, also, consider the impact your values have on the people around you. Tolerating others is not the same as supporting them. Taking risks to fit in does not actually create more stability.

Taurus Rising: Being a completely new person is different than knowing how to communicate who you are now. You are a different person than you were in 2018, but that does not necessarily mean you know how to express who that new person is publicly or that your relationships have caught up with your changes. Your relationships and communications in your public life are in tension with who you have become this week. Use that tension to serve your ongoing evolution rather than to stifle it. You know what you are saying, even if other people haven’t caught up yet.

Gemini Rising: Beliefs are the thoughts we think all the time. Church is the safety ritual that brings us back to our bodies. Prayer is an ideal we hold in our hearts for a better future. Your ideals, beliefs, and philosophical systems are causing some tension with the rigid ways you unconsciously find comfort. But, that tension is an invitation for you to find comfort that is more reliable. It is not a threat. The way we find comfort as a child does not always serve us as we get older, which means we can be open to more reliable comforts, not that we need to be anxious all the time. If you could invent a new comfort for your unconscious brain, what would it be?

Cancer Rising: There is inherent instability in seeking stability; inherent attachment in the concept of non-attachment. You have a fixedness in how you see the comfort of your social groups and your expectations of your partners, and there is tension this week between those two areas of your life. This tension is an opportunity to consider a new version of what true stability is in your social groups. There is more comfort available in allowing the new than clinging to the old standards that did not work.

Leo Rising: The Nuremberg Defense describes the defense, “I was just following orders.” In the Nuremberg trials after WWII, the courts held that each soldier was responsible for the harms they caused and that they could not use this defense. Accountability means you are responsible for actions you did take, whether or not you thought they were right at the time, but you are not responsible for actions you did not take. Career is a place where stability is important to you, and partnerships are a place where you gravitate toward somewhat hierarchical standards. Both of these spaces are going through dramatic change in your life right now and those changes are in tension. Relationships and communication do not need to be bad in order for change and accountability to be necessary.

Virgo Rising: If you are willing to change your mind when you hear an idea that is better than yours, you are never wrong. Your belief systems and ideals are coming to the end of a major renovation, and this is experiencing tension from your health and daily habits. You gravitate toward comfort and stability in the area of your ideals, and you are going through chaos, activity, and major change in your health, daily life, or habits. This can lead to feeling like everything you’ve relied on is wrong, which is not the case. Just because you need to open your ideals to something better does not mean that what you believed before was wrong.

Libra Rising: Do it weird, do it queer, do it new, do it you. Sorry I had to rhyme there, but it was necessary [for the children!]. How you communicate and build relationships around what you’ve created are in tension with other people’s values or the resources you get from your partnerships this week. And, that is meant to help you build something more stable, more comforting, and more unique to who you are. The instability and change related to your partners’ resources and other peoples values exist regardless of your creative projects. Be you and let the dust settle as it will. You’ll find stability again after this passes and stifling your creativity will not create stability.

Scorpio Rising: Chosen family and chosen partnerships provide more stability and comfort often than obligation family and partnerships in part because of their flexibility. You are wrapping up a time of major changes related to your partnerships and accomplices and starting a time of major changes related to family. These are areas of your life where you likely hate change, and so I’m sorry about this. And also, tilling ground allows plants to grow. Wind blows out smog. If the changes related to home and family are triggering your partnership changes, that can feel like a lot. If you allow the changes, you will grow into a new version of yourself; if you struggle against them, it exhausts you but does not prevent their impact.

Sagittarius Rising: It’s time to start wearing gas masks if you go protest. Your health and daily routine are a place in your life where you tend to be stable and solid, and this has gone through major changes and instability since 2018. The changes in your local community right now, including protests and counter protests, will likely trigger this instability in your health and daily routine. Be safe, and also express yourself (in ways that contribute to the safety of the community)!

Capricorn Rising: Michelangelo is said to have explained about his sculptures, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” You have been going through a chiseling process related to your children or creative projects since 2018, and this week initiates a final round of edits that may come in the form of communications around money, values relationships, and beauty. If your children or creative projects feel at odds with your values, remember that they get to tell you who they are. If your values are too rigid, it harms you, but it does not change them.

Aquarius Rising: As the great Madonna said, “Don’t go for second best baby … express yourself.” Who you are is inherently both open-minded and hierarchical, changeable and certain, and also you are beginning a major revolution of who you are, just as you are wrapping up a major time of change in your home and family life. Part of you idealizes innovation and the urge to express your changes may be strong right now, which is worthwhile. This may trigger some of the tension around instability in your family and home life this week, though. That isn’t bad. It is just a sign that these fixed areas of your life are ready to bring a new version of comfort and stability. Going back to the outdated version is not an option anyway.

Pisces Rising: Ignoring something does not make it go away. You have hidden parts of you, or shadow parts, that are innovative, open-minded, change oriented, and have a strong sense of what is cool and uncool. You have likely felt more and more pressure to express this side of yourself, and it may surprise even you. Writing down your thoughts, needs, and opinions can give expression to this side of yourself that the universe is compelling you to look at. This may trigger some tension related to the changes and instability in your local community or with your siblings over the past 9 years, but that is no reason to silence yourself. Those changes are happening no matter what.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you like these horoscopes, don’t forget to hit the like button and share them with someone who might get something out of them. It boosts the algorithm and so more people might see them!

If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Imbolc, Brigid, and Healing the Collective Unconscious

Happy Imbolc to those who celebrate!

Imbolc is the Celtic celebration of the goddess Brigid (pronounced “BREED”), who is the goddess of the hearth and fire, healing, smith work, and poetry. Imbolc comes in the middle of Aquarius season, associating Brigid with the energies of Aquarius (happy birthday to those of you with this Brigid energy!). Aquarius energy is associated with social healing, change, and innovation, as well as creative endeavors like poetry. During the time of Aquarius, we move from the depths of Capricorn winter, when structures like homes and social institutions that provide food and warmth are crucial, into the stirring of spring and the hints of newness. At this time, questioning institutions is as important as acknowledging their power to protect.

In one story, Brigid, is said to have lost her son in a battle and gone to the battlefield to keen over his death. This is said to be the first keening over loss of a loved one. In some ways this story is very true to the transition between Capricorn and Aquarius. Capricorn is the good soldier, who upholds the institution, while Aquarius sees the broader picture and the social change necessary for the community to serve the most vulnerable. Aquarius has learned that being a good soldier is not always the answer and often causes the harms it is trying to prevent.

Photo by Haley Owens on Unsplash

The Sun will be in the middle of Aquarius (15 degrees) this year at 12:02pm Pacific on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, and this can be a good time to celebrate Imbolc. It is sometimes considered the astrological moment of Imbolc. This is the chart, using whole sign houses, for the moment when the Sun goes to 15 degrees Aquarius in case you follow astrological charts:

Thanks to Astrotheoros for their beautiful charts!

This puts the Sun between two femme deities very aligned with Brigid: Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, at 12 degrees Aquarius; and Venus, the goddess of beauty and poetry, at 21 degrees Aquarius. These celestial bodies are in the 9th house, the house of higher education, ideals, and belief systems. This moment on February 3 offers us a time to sit with our ideals and belief systems and how they can contribute to healing the collective.

The Full Moon in Leo happens on Sunday, February 1, 2026, at 2:08pm Pacific, and this is another marker of energy relevant to Brigid. This Full Moon happens with the Sun at 13 degrees of Aquarius and the Moon at 13 degrees of Leo, so this Full Moon is almost exactly conjunct the midpoint of Aquarius as well. Aquarius brings energy of innovation, social justice, and the collective; Leo brings energy of the self, being in the spotlight, and personal identity.

The Leo Full Moon represents a tension between being ourselves and serving the collective. If I want to be me, is it selfish? If I want to serve the collective, does that mean I have to go against my nature? Now is a very relevant time to ask ourselves these questions.

And, they are the wrong questions. In some ways, there are no bad questions, but in other ways, the questions we ask ourselves matter a lot. They both reflect the path we are on and allow us to choose a new path. These questions assume the Leo/Aquarius polarity is all there is. They assume that it is either me or the collective, and any time we get stuck in that kind of either/or thinking, we’ve gone into Pluto territory. Pluto has been in Aquarius for the past year, so this polarized thinking is all the rage right now and may continue to be for some time.

Healing the Collective

As a poet, healer, and representative of Aquarius, Brigid is a wonderful symbol for our abilities to heal the collective. I come from the (admittedly very Aries) belief that it is through being fully ourselves that we best contribute to healing our communities.

Being fully ourselves means having integrity between our minds, bodies, emotions, and spirits (our four cups, if you will). And, at the same time, when we only focus on our personal healing, we indulge in narcissism. We are individual humans living in communities, both in terms of our physical communities and the collective unconscious. So, both are true. The Moon’s Leo energy of embodying the self and being the best co-exists with the importance of protest, social justice, and envisioning a better world.

In order to heal the collective, we have to ask better, less superstitious questions. Here are a few to ask yourself over this Imbolc season. You can talk these through with a friend or get out a journal or sketch pad and write or draw through them.

What are ways I find it easy to be my full self while I am with other people?

In what ways do I find it challenging to be my full self while I am with other people?

If I assume that being myself contributes to my community, what are some of the ways I’ve seen that happen or heard people say they have seen that? (This is not a time to debate whether being yourself contributes, but a time to see ways it does.)

What is a block I am willing to release in order to be more fully myself so that I can help heal the collective?

I am thinking about offering some ongoing notes about the ritual work I do every day to contribute to healing the collective unconscious. This work does not exist on its own as a substitute for engaging with community, but I find it impactful for myself and the coaching and remediation clients I work with. Let me know if notes about this sound helpful.

Collective Healing. As an example, one shift that I believe is quite straightforward for many people right now is around the thought, “I’m not contributing enough.” This thought sounds like it would motivate us to do more, but if you sit with the thought, understanding that it is not an observation, you may notice that it actually makes you feel helpless. It does so for me at least. When I feel helpless, I actually give up, rather than doing more. So, the thought “I’m not contributing enough” actually makes it more difficult for me to contribute. I call this a sabotage spell because it creates what it is trying prevent.

Instead, if we want to heal our communities, we have to ask, What actions can I take to contribute to healing my community? Then, make a list of activities you might be able to engage in. The next question is, What feeling would motivate me to engage in one of those activities? For me, the feeling may be belonging. Then, a thought that might contribute to feeling belonging is, “I love my community and am willing to do one thing to contribute to its healing.”

The more of us who are willing to heal our thinking in this way, the more the collective unconscious heals and the easier it is to see evidence of healing in our communities.

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of January 26, 2026

War is destructive, not glorious. Violence is harmful, not noble. Using power to control is abuse, not safety.

Keep these principles in mind as we enter a new 14 year time period of Neptune in Aries, starting Monday, January 26, 2026. This type of time period is marked by idealism and propaganda around what it means to be a good soldier and fight for what you believe in. While fighting for what we believe in sounds noble, this time also creates confusion about what we can believe in and trust.

To have reliable beliefs, and know what we can trust we have to build connection and integrity between our minds, emotions, bodies, and spirits. Most of us have experienced some form of disconnect of one or more of those, whether it is from high control religion, academia, trauma, or other cultural conditioning.

This time invites us to define the boundaries around who we truly are and what we stand for.

Also, I literally watched another person get murdered by the police as I was writing this. And you will probably wonder which one it was because there have been so many. We need to know where our boundaries are and act on them.

Photo by Tsuyoshi Kozu on Unsplash

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

Neptune ingresses into Aries on January 26, 2026, at 9:34am. Neptune was first in Aries in March-October 2025, and so that gave us a preview of this 14 year transit. Neptune is associated with spirit, boundarylessness, idealism, and confusion. Aries is a cardinal fire sign, meaning it initiates passionately and sparks situations to life. Aries is ruled by Mars, the god of war, and time periods of Neptune in Aries tend to be marked by idealism around war and soldiering. For example, during the American Civil War, Neptune was in Aries, and during early battles, people had such unrealistic ideas of war, that families were bringing their children and planning basket lunches to watch the fighting. Soon, the nightmare of war set in, and disillusionment followed. The shadow side of Neptune’s illusions is the disillusionment of reality.

• Last week, the Sun, Mercury, and Venus conjoined Pluto in Aquarius. This week, on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at 3:01pm Pacific, Mars conjoins Pluto. This is the god of war and the god of the underworld colliding, and it is marked by extreme power struggle. Around the globe, protests are happening right now over tyranny, and the Mars/Pluto conjunction asks us to look deeply at our shadow and capacity for violence. Whatever anger we have repressed is likely to come exploding to the surface if we do not invite it intentionally into our awareness.

• Mercury and Venus go conjunct in Aquarius on Thursday, January 29, 2026, at 2:17am. This asks you to not just think about, but also communicate what you appreciate about your community and the progress your community has made. This is a good transit for writing or calling your representatives to tell them what you care about (or sending a loved one an early Valentines card).

• The Full Moon in Leo is happening on February 1, 2026, at 2:01pm Pacific. This is also Imbolc, the holiday that marks the transition from the dead of Winter into the emerging Spring. This holiday honors the goddess Brigid (pronounced BREED). Brigid is associated with hearth and warmth, healing, protection, inspiration, and creativity. This time is associated with the shedding of the serpent, a symbol of transformation, and the welcoming of spring. At this full moon, the Sun will be in Aquarius, opposing the Moon in Leo. This shines the spotlight on tension between the self and the ego and the needs of the collective. Honoring Brigid during this time can allow for flexibility and newness in how we encounter that polarity.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of January 26, 2026:

Aries Rising: When we ignore or minimize truths that are available to us, we are responsible for that internal cover up, even if we are not responsible for the truth itself. For example, this week and last week deep and shadowy experiences in your friend and social groups have been popping up like zits that need to be popped. If you ignore them and shove them down, they are likely to keep bubbling up, each time more poisonously than the last. It takes courage to face the truth, admit you were wrong about a friend or a group, and change your mind. You have that courage.

Taurus Rising: Release all fragility your ego has nurtured around your public life and career or you’ll be crushed by it. Our egos are what define our preferences and who we are as people. They are healthy parts of our identity. When we have over-inflated or fragile egos, we can become reactive and punishing to other people, and this is a problem, but having an ego is healthy, and we all have them. You are going through transformation in your career, and this week it puts your ego to the test, pushing up any repressed wounding in that area. If you can step back from reactivity, care for yourself and your ego, and allow the pressure from the universe, you can uncover wounds you repressed that deserve healing. True healing of our egos is not repression. It respects who we are and our boundaries, while also being respectful of other people and their boundaries.

Gemini Rising: First, if you travel this week … don’t. Second, if an institution is not loyal to you, that is the first sign that it does not deserve your loyalty. You may have a certain sense of freedom, progress, and community service related to the institutions you align with, and that does not need to change. But, this week unearths anything that may be buried under justifications, excuses, or “I’ll look at that later” thinking. While it may not have felt like repressing problems at the time, this week puts intense pressure on anything below the surface. If there is anything you’ve set aside or put into shadow, this week it will emerge from the shadow lit on fire. Some intentional digging into your belief systems, institutional loyalties, and how they fit your integrity may help reduce the destruction.

Cancer Rising: Safety first. If you are going out protesting, or even going on a date, memorize a safety person’s phone number and make sure the people you love know where you are. Your transits don’t necessarily mean anything bad will happen, but you, as a Cancer rising, know that it never hurts to be safe. Your transits can indicate explosion or unearthing of secrets around sex, other people’s money, or inheritance. This may also relate to idealism you have around your career or public-facing life. You have enormous luck related to being who you are right now, though, and rather than using any explosions this week to shut yourself down, ask how they can help you become more nurturing to yourself.

Leo Rising: The more you push a beach ball down in a pool, the higher it jumps out of the water when you release it. Any repressed or unspoken conflicts in your partnerships are likely to bubble (or explode) to the surface this week unless you are intentional about excavating what you have put into shadow and bringing it into light. While any of us bypass problems, you may have a tendency to be open minded in partnership, rely on your open mindedness, and not realize that you actually have pretty established standards of expectations until they get to an explosion point. You can be open minded and still have standards. In fact, open mindedness without standards is codependency.

Virgo Rising: Mask up. Take your health seriously this week, and don’t take any unnecessary risks around your daily routine and physical safety. Anything you’ve been avoiding related to your physical health is likely to come to a boiling point this week. Even if you need to consult multiple experts about a health issue, listen to the experts. Take your medicine and vitamins. Go to the ER right away if you get hurt. Listen to your body. If you and your partners are having trouble communicating about money, do it in writing, and read what they say to you multiple times to avoid confusion.

Libra Rising: We can’t share secrets if we hide them from ourselves. We can’t equip the next generation with wisdom if we are not willing to experience the discomfort of truth. You started to experience a stripping, unearthing, and transformation in your fifth house of children and creative projects in January 2025, and this week power dynamics in that area are activated. As Gloria Steinem said, “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” If your creative projects or children are demanding truths from you this week that are triggering, give yourself some space to be pissed off before you pressure yourself to engage.

Scorpio Rising: Pushing problems in your home life under the surface is like taking poison and expecting it to fix the leaks in your roof. It’s just not how physics works. While you may think of yourself as open-minded when it comes to your home life, you actually do have set standards that you follow and expect others to follow. If you are able to intentionally identify expectations that you have not acknowledged, you may still experience conflict at home this week, but it may ease some of the pressure so that the lid pops off, rather than exploding. This week initiates a time of idealism related to your physical health and daily routine. One way to channel this in a productive way is to intentionally incorporate spiritual practice into your day. Don’t let idealism make you skip your doctor appointments.

Sagittarius Rising: Make your protesting and your sex safer by following the boring guidelines and not indulging in over-optimism. Sorry to be a downer. This week, clashes in your local community come to a head (I wish I meant that as a euphemism, but I mean it literally). Memorize a trusted friend’s phone number before you go out, and if you want to blow off steam with a sexy revolutionary, use protection. Smoothing things over with open mindedness can help in some situations, but this week, practical reality will catch up with you if you have bypassed protections.

Capricorn Rising: Balance your checkbook rather than ignoring your bills. Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away, and when you know damage has happened, you can start to heal it. If a drain on your abundance or damage to what you value happens this week, it is likely that last week gave you a hint of what is coming. That doesn’t necessarily make it less shocking. If you experience harm from this, sit with what that means for you and get support. This experience is in service of transforming your values and how you see abundance not just for yourself, but also for how you engage with community.

Aquarius Rising: When we confuse ourselves for our egos, we get trapped in a room with no exits. Our egos are what define who we are and our preferences. A healthy ego is important to being able to connect with ourselves and others. And also, how you see yourself and the face you put to the world is going through an intense transformation. The ego wounding you experience this week can show you where this transformation needs to focus or secrets you’ve been keeping from yourself about who you truly are and the standards you have for yourself and others.

Pisces Rising: What you say out loud sometimes gives more insight into what you are thinking than meditation or journaling. For you, try all three this week. If there are secrets you have kept from yourself, like most of us do, about how you feel, what you think, and who you are, this week will trigger those. If you struggled with mental health last week, this week is likely to intensify that. Say your thoughts out loud, write them down, look at them as though they were completely separate from you. Your thoughts are not observations about life, they are just a byproduct of your brain, which is an organ like the others in your body. With thoughts, you might not be aware that they are lies until you say them out loud or see them on paper. Be skeptical about what your brain tells you. Thoughts are most often lies given to us by dominant culture.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Astrological Resourcing Under Fascism

What do the stars say about where you fit in the resistance?

Protests are happening around the world right now, in the midst of governments and militaries, led by dictators, committing atrocities. I live in the U.S. and so a lot of the focus I see is on federal agents brutalizing people in U.S. neighborhoods, schools, and businesses, but these events are happening around the world. A lot of people I see in the U.S. are feeling overwhelmed in figuring out where they personally fit into helping their communities survive through this darkness and how to hope for and build a better future.

I come from a fundamental belief that we all, collectively and individually, hold responsibility for our actions and inactions that contributed to bringing us to this place. I say that not because of blame, but because of power. When we understand that, even though power is disproportionate and unfair in the world as we know it, we each still have power, we can use it intentionally. And, I believe that it is in each of us showing up with our full power and accountability that we shift to a better future.

Someone said to me recently that if he inherited some of his father’s traits, it did not make him a bad person. This is similar to white people believing that because we inherited an unjust, racist system, but did not create it, we are not “bad.” It may be true that we are not “bad,” because that word does not have a lot of meaning. But if we are adults, we are still responsible and accountable for our actions and inactions that perpetuate violence and violent systems through our actions or our inactions.

While each person’s contribution may be different, each person’s decision to contribute, or ignore harms, matters.

I want to talk a little bit about my background related to this, and then I want to go through an overview of astrological placements that you can look to in order to consider your place in the resistance.

Photo I took in a 2025 protest of a sign with Princess Leia and the words “A woman’s place is in the resistance”

Law, Government, and Tyranny

I have been a civil rights lawyer for a little over a decade. In my third year of law school, I took a class called Federal Jurisdiction, which sounds dry but was actually one of my favorite classes in law school. We had an amazing professor, and much of the class focused on the balance and separation of powers between the three branches of government in the U.S.

One day, as we were finishing up studying the cases around the Nixon and Clinton presidencies, I remember having a realization that there are no guaranteed protections for citizens in the U.S., despite our rhetoric and propaganda about freedom, bravery, and civil rights.

Law students kind of learn this in other classes, like when we read Marbury v. Madison in Constitutional Law and find out the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution because one early justice said that was its job. But, it wasn’t really until I studied the separation of powers at the level of Fed. Jur. that I realized how bleak it was. I remember our professor bringing home to us that if one branch of government decided not to follow the constitution, namely the executive branch, ultimately law enforcement and the military, controlled by the executive branch, would decide what the law is in the U.S., like they do in other militarized countries.

It has only been during times in which we are reluctant to openly engage in violent conflict that we have not been in this type of battle. And, honestly, I am not persuaded we have ever had such a time throughout U.S. history. If you pay attention to the history of Black, Native American, and immigrant communities, I believe it bears out that we have consistently been under militarized rule, though white communities have been trained to ignore, comply, and carry water for that system, calling it Rule of Law.

All Life Has Value, But Not Equality

Most of us in the U.S. have been taught the famous aspirational lines of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . .” This phrase intentionally left out women, just as the U.S. Constitution clarified that only “free,” or in other words white, men were considered “persons,” explicitly saying that Native and enslaved people had less value at the time of the forming of the U.S. government. Even upon the drafting of those lines, the founders of the U.S. government did not envision all people as equal. In fact, the patriarchal and racist narcissism of dominant culture at the time explicitly held that humans had different value based on what their skin looked like and whether they had internal or external genitalia.

We may aspire to equality, but unless we acknowledge and correct inequality, we will never attain it.

It is obvious to see that people are not born in equal circumstances or with equal natures. Much of U.S. culture is built around gaslighting people into believing that if they have worse circumstances than a billionaire or better circumstances than someone who does not live in a house, it is because of their work ethic.

This trickles insidiously into teachings about working harder at our spirituality or mindset in order to chase expectations that we be rich and skinny. And, chasing those goals tends to benefit people already holding power.

In working with astrology, it becomes clear right away that each person is different and brings different perspective, personal strengths, and personal challenges to our communities. It is in our difference that our value is most obvious.

The resistance needs organizers, activists, protestors, artists, poets, writers, mediums, astrologers, speakers, knitters, bakers, massage therapists, and all other forms of community care.

I say this to acknowledge the injustice of the circumstances we are in, and to say that your contribution or lack of contribution matters.

So where do you fit in?

Astrological Placements

In order to sit with where your strengths are in contributing to community survival and care, consider your entire natal chart (you can get yours at astro.com). First, I will generally go through the signs, and then we can talk about a few placements that may bring some insight.

Signs. This is a brief overview of how each sign may support the resistance and the challenges you may want to watch for and counterbalance. You have each of the signs in your chart, though how your chart engages with the energies of each sign is different from the people around you.

Aries brings courage, drive, speed, and action to the resistance. Aries should watch for getting too stuck on their way being the only way to make change. It is possible to be courageous, lead, and listen, even when it slows you down. If you mess up, take accountability, don’t let it shut you down, and get back out there.

Taurus brings stability, consistency, practicality, and dependability to the resistance. Taurus should watch for needing things to be completely safe and stable before taking action. If protesting in the streets is not the right thing for you, make financial contributions to local organizing, and organize food delivery to your neighbors who might be afraid to go out right now.

Gemini brings quick thinking, writing and speaking abilities, and lightness to the resistance. Gemini should watch for getting distracted by things that don’t matter and using this as an excuse to not take their work seriously. If you were in a protest sign competition, and the prize was the vacation of your dreams, what protest signs and chants would you write? Set a reminder to call representatives every day and use your chat power for the collective good.

Cancer brings care, loyalty, and intuitive understanding of the community’s needs to the resistance. Cancer should watch out for burning themselves out doing emotional labor for people who are not mutually contributing to the resistance. Take your emotional wellness seriously and model what a thriving life looks like for the rest of us. If you have medical or mental health training, be intentional with where you offer it, and think about whether you have room to offer low-cost support to resistance organizers.

Leo brings drive, passion, and the ability to lead to the resistance. Watch out for making the resistance about you and allowing ego wounds to interfere with effectiveness. This isn’t sportsball, but if you are motivated by competition (ummm, you are if you have strong Leo), then make it a competition and also remember that it matters. Organize your local community. If you see people doing it wrong, ask for their consent to do it right. Get buy-in from other people, but don’t let approval-seeking hold you back.

Virgo brings a critical eye, ability to analyze and plan, and organization to the resistance. Watch out for turning criticism against yourself or expecting things to be perfect before you take action. If it’s messy, then it’s a good thing you’re there to make it more clear and tidy. If being out in the streets does not feel safe to you, organize behind the scenes. Write postcards to people making decisions, telling them how to do their jobs better. You can’t completely know the impact you’ll have ahead of time, but the one guarantee is that if you silence yourself ahead of time, you have no impact.

Libra brings a strong sense of justice, ability to communicate with people who are different, and beauty to the resistance. Watch out for worrying about what your family and loved ones think about you over what you need and believe. Use your strong ability to understand others with purpose in order to persuade them to believe we could have a better world. You don’t owe your MAGA relatives your attention. Also, put extra glitter on your protest sign because it is possible to resist and look amazing while you do it. That does not disrespect the seriousness of the issues.

Scorpio brings an intensity, unity of purpose, and effectiveness to the resistance. Watch out for letting personal revenge distract you from the most effective use of your skills (instead use it in favor of your ultimate goals). You know what needs to get done for the power to shift. Instead of ruminating about it, go make sure it gets done.

Sagittarius brings understanding of the big picture, leadership, and adventure to the resistance. Watch out for getting too focused on your personal freedom or the truth as you see it, and missing important input from the people around you. If you see a better future for us, what does it look like? Share your vision with those around you and use your leadership skills to get us there.

Capricorn brings structure, understanding of systems, and caution to the resistance. Watch out for letting your pessimism or rigidity give you an excuse for not participating because you are not willing to be wrong. Plan the speakers at your local protests and organize the rules and resources for people joining. If you had to write the resource guide to create an equitable society, where would you start your research? No time like the present to get that research compiled.

Aquarius brings freedom, invention, and collectivism to the resistance. Watch out for needing group approval before you take action or assuming that your way is the only or best way. If there is anyone who could dream up a better world, it’s you. And don’t let the dream be a substitute for taking action to make the world what you want it to be now. Get out and protest, even if your friends aren’t. Write a utopian novel, instead of a dystopian one. Have a difficult, but honest, conversation with a family member or friend that has the potential to contribute to creating the practical reality of the dream.

Pisces brings spirituality, flexibility, and imagination to the resistance. Watch out for overly flexible thinking that leads you to justify the harm and dehumanization other people commit. You have tremendous access to the collective unconscious and spiritual insight. If protesting does not feel right to you, organize a prayer group, healing circle, or other spiritual circle to send healing energy to those on the front lines and those who have been harmed by fascism. Offer the physical or emotional healing support you are qualified to offer to those in your community who are afraid right now. If you are white, offer to pick up groceries for those in your neighborhood who are afraid to shop. Challenge yourself to have an honest conversation about harm with a MAGA relative.

Planets. Each of the planets, as it shows up in your chart, has the potential to contribute to the resistance, and here are some ways they can do that:

Pluto informs power impacts our lives, including oppression and resistance to oppression.

Neptune informs where we are idealistic and have work to do on our boundaries.

Uranus informs where change, innovation, and freedom are important to us or impact us in a challenging way.

Saturn informs how structure, karma, and rules impact us, and also how we punish ourselves, if we do.

Jupiter informs spaces where we expand and allow ourselves to be big (or where the universe pushes us to be big).

Mars represents how we relate to conflict and how we take action.

Venus represents how we relate to connection, intimacy, and beauty.

Mercury represents how we communicate.

The Moon represents our first, emotional response.

The Sun represents our overall self.

The Ascendant or Rising Sign represents the face we put to the world.

Houses. The houses are the slices of the pie on your natal chart, and they represent areas of life. For considering where you fit into the resistance, I recommend looking especially to these houses:

Third, Fifth, and Eleventh Houses: These inform how you protest, speak out, create, and care for your local community and social groups.

Second, Sixth, and Tenth Houses: These inform your values, habits, and public life and how they may contribute to making the world better.

Eighth, Ninth, and Twelfth Houses: These inform how you spiritually and idealistically participate in healing the collective unconscious.

First, Fourth, and Seventh Houses: These inform how you replenish yourself and build your personal life as a model for a better world.

Overall Takeaways

Each of us has important value to bring toward collective care. It is crucial that we start to see caring for the most vulnerable among us as central to thriving community. Neither equality nor equity are competition, and we have to acknowledge inequity before we can build toward equity.

In order to see where you personally fit into the resistance, keep in mind that the contribution of all the signs are important. Particularly look at your Third and Eleventh houses for how you can best protest as well as offer and receive community care. What signs are in those houses and what clues do they give toward how you protest fascism and build a better world?

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of January 19, 2026

What is the difference between faith and superstition?

What is the difference between innovation and destruction?

What is the difference between intimacy and boundarilessness?

What is the difference between propaganda and journalism?

This week, and the era we are in generally, asks us to answer these questions for ourselves and test out the practical impacts of our answers. Here are some suggested principles for this time:

• Faith is a solid sense of reality, on which you base your actions. Superstition is a fear of tricky punishment or sabotage. I have faith that I am sitting on a chair, and this invites accountability. I sit down and know the chair is there or that it is not there. And I want to know. Some have superstition that if I don’t put my body into certain water or say magic words, a vengeful and fickle deity will sabotage me. Some have superstition that if they talk about harm, a vengeful and fickle deity (or person) will bring harm to them.

• Innovation builds toward a vision. Destruction focuses on the thing it wants to undo and thereby often replicates that very thing.

• Intimacy expects both trust and freedom. Boundarilessness says that if I am uncomfortable, you must change your actions.

• Propaganda targets your fears and oversimplifies the benefits you get if you buy into a particular solution to them. Journalism tells you the five-senses reality of an impactful experience, whether it fits into a neat narrative or not.

These are just my answers though, and this week invites you to find your own. Never take my word for what you can test out and find for yourself.

Among the many necessary protests happening around the world, not just the US, this week the frog protests stand out to me because they ask you to question what is real and what is not. Just because someone in power says something is true, does not mean it is true. Probe deeper. Find out what is a hallucination and what is in alignment with you.

Photo by Alicia Lozano / NBC News

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• We are coming off of the intense Capricorn New Moon on Sunday, December 18, 2026, at 11:51am Pacific. The Sun and Moon are at the last degrees of Capricorn, in between Pluto and Mars, as Neptune is also at the last degree of Pisces. As we start the week, this may provide some support for idealism, even in the midst of global conflict and likely personal stress and even conflict. Is the idealism a good thing? Time will tell.

• Monday, January 19, 2026, is the busiest astrological day, so go easy on yourself. These are the aspects happening that day:

  • The Sun in Capricorn sextiles Neptune in Pisces, both at the last degrees of the signs, at 1:54pm Pacific. Then, the Sun goes into Aquarius at 5:44pm Pacific.

  • Venus and Pluto go conjunct in Aquarius at 8:04pm Pacific.

  • Saturn in Pisces sextiles Uranus in Taurus at 9:18pm Pacific.

  • Mars in Capricorn trines Uranus in Taurus at 9:56pm Pacific and then sextiles Saturn in Pisces at 10:01pm Pacific.

Two words: conspiracy theory. Don’t do them. Even if they feel good, and even if the AI video about them seems true, resist the urge. There is not one magic cure that will make you feel good for the rest of your life. There is not one person or practice that will solve all of your problems. Those don’t exist because if they did, it would not be good for you. You are here to feel the range of human emotion and test out what is right for you, personally, not to fit someone else’s mold of perfect. This is a day when you might feel fixated on a particular relationship or feel inundated by change. Let those feelings come, and ground yourself in reality. Touch scratchy fabric, put your body in water, and wait for the obsession or conspiracy theory to pass.

• Mercury in Capricorn sextiles Neptune in Pisces on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, at 6:34am Pacific. This is a supportive transit for creating a vision for insight into your personal ideals or visions, but Mars is right on the heels of Mercury, and so that will likely create disruption and impatience. If the visions come, let them, but watch out for the instinct to fight about them. Right after that Mercury goes into Aquarius, and then on Wednesday, the 21st, at 7:48am, it exactly conjoins the Sun. This is called a cazimi, which is associated with flashes of brilliance, but I don’t tend to personally have that experience. Then, on Thursday the 22nd, at 7:48am, Mercury conjoins Pluto. This tends to bring all-or-nothing thinking. Remember that life is full of spectrums that are marked by polarities. Either/ors, especially doom-related ones, are lies.

• Mars in Capricorn sextiles Neptune in Pisces on Thursday, January 22, 2026, at 10:39pm pacific. This is one of the transits we are stepping into that relates to an idealism around violence or war. At its best, though, it could give you insight into actions you can take to create the world you want.

• The Sun conjoins Pluto in Aquarius on Friday, January 23, 2026, at 2:28am. This is intense. It happens once a year, and it signifies a depth of personal and revolution and rebellion against oppressive systems. Pluto represents both oppression and rebellion, both burning down the house and the new plans to rebuild. How you show up matters during this time.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign, or if you’re not sure, it’s okay to use your sun sign) in the week of January 19, 2026:

Aries Rising: Rejection is protection. Your friend groups and social groups are undergoing a profound change right now. So are your values and how you see abundance. If the social structures and value systems you have relied on seem like they are blowing up in your face, bend so that you don’t break. These are two of the most rigid places in your life, but even rigid internal systems need to grow or else they decay. Let yourself feel the grief of change and loss, without glossing over it. Acknowledging the harm allows you to accept the change.

Taurus Rising: There is no prize for most open minded person. While you may want that one particular person to see all of the work you’ve done on yourself and become as obsessed with you as you are with them, your grounded self knows that you’ll never be satisfied with that. The work you’ve done and transformations you’ve made are for you, and you will experience the benefits of them, just maybe not today. If you think you should be getting more social credit than you are, take yourself on the date of your dreams and buy yourself the flowers and jewelry you deserve. If you feel tempted to fall into compromising your boundaries or becoming manipulative to get the credit or intimacy you want, remember your freedom matters just as much as your connection to others.

Gemini Rising: In order to know what you believe, you have to check in with your body, emotions, mind, and spirit. You can’t out-think your body’s wisdom. Your belief systems and unconscious thinking are undergoing a profound change right now, and for better or worse (hopefully better!), you will never be the same. This week, you may be tempted to get fixated on what other people believe and experience some rigidity of thinking. If your crush believes it, does it make it true? No. Your body, heart, mind, and spirit all have to be on board. If you feel confused about fake AI videos, propaganda, and social media chatter, take a step back. Check in with your true values (the ones that haven’t changed since you were little). What do they say about who you are becoming?

Cancer Rising: Keep it in the sheets, not on the streets. Proverbially! Actually, maybe take it to the streets too. You are in the midst of profound change related to your social groups, as well as one related to other people’s money and values, and sex. This week may invite you to become obsessed with someone you have a sexual encounter with or whose money or values influence your life, but listen to your higher self if you start experiencing fixated thinking. You may have some grief to process related to changes in your social groups, but no one person will solve the experience of loneliness. Humans experience loss, loneliness, companionship, intimacy, and the whole range of the interconnectedness. Codependence that comes from fixation on one person’s feelings is less reliable than healthy boundaries.

Leo Rising: If you were going to become obsessed with divorce, and you had to sell it to other people, what would be your top three selling points? I ask because the conjunctions to Pluto this week are happening in your seventh house of partnerships, and especially the Venus conjunction to Pluto is associated with obsessive and intense love affairs that center around forbidden desire. When divorce is easy and sexuality is celebrated, desires lose their forbiddenness. It is only repression and stigma that makes relationship secrecy necessary and even alluring. Now, I’m not saying you’re going to have an affair, but check in with your boundaries in your partnerships. Are there problems you think you need to keep secret? If so, consider airing the problems before you explode the partnership through rebellions you think are hidden.

Virgo Rising: Hypochondria doesn’t have a medical degree. Don’t take medical advice from it. This is a great week to follow up on your medical appointments, get your annual exams, call a nurse if you have symptoms, and get a second opinion. Just because you’re worried about it, doesn’t make it true. On the other hand, if you want to ignore it, that doesn’t make it go away. You are undergoing major changes related to your health and your personal belief systems, and this may involve grief about your body and your major belief structures changing. Check in with experts and then check with other experts before you let fear rule your decisions.

Libra Rising: Intensity and intimacy are not the same thing. You are in the midst of a long-term a personal revolution related to sex and generativity. This week may invite you to obsess over a creation, sexual partner, or sexual experience, and while the depth of intensity may feel compelling, honoring your personal boundaries and freedoms is also important. Wait for intensity of feeling to pass before you make any life-changing decisions. All-or-nothing thinking is always a lie, and the truth exists somewhere on the spectrum between those two answers. I don’t say this to make you afraid though, and when inspiration strikes, lean into your creativity, trusting that you know how to protect your freedom and boundaries.

Scorpio Rising: We often experience betrayal in a similar way to grief, and it is deserving of a similar mourning process. There is a stereotype of lesbians as having “u-haul relationships,” meaning that they meet and immediately decide to move in together. You are in the midst of a personal transformation around your home and partnerships, and whether you are keeping secrets or you are suspicious someone else may be, too much forced intimacy or too much secret keeping can create betrayal that cuts deeper than difficult conversations. U-hauling with a dream of intimacy does not promise a follow-through of trustworthiness. Clinging to relationships long dead does not bring them back to life. If you allow the transformation to happen, and minimize your obsession over finding the ideal family or moving to the right place, healing will come.

Sagittarius Rising: When in doubt about how to contribute to creating a new and better world, focus on local community. If you take to the streets to protest the murder of Nicole Good this week, remember the hundreds of kidnapped, disappeared, or murdered people of color and their families whose lives have been forever changed by government takeover of our neighborhoods. You are going through personal transformation around local community, siblings, and your daily routine. While this may sound boring or mundane, these are the areas that have enormous impact on the rest of our lives. Don’t fixate on one right answer and release rigidity about your personal routines. The long-term transits you’re experiencing are designed to have a profound impact on the rest of your life.

Capricorn Rising: If God is love, God isn’t also trying to trick you into missing out on your best life (or heaven) just to be a petty bitch. Your values are undergoing a profound transformation right now, and this is an area of life where you may have historically been somewhat rigid and idealistic. You can’t perfection your way into knowing yourself, what matters most to you, and what abundance means to you. You may feel the pull toward all-or-nothing thinking related to values this week, and you may validly feel appalled by people who callously cause harm to their neighbors. That is tremendously fair. It is also true that there is a long history of fascism around the world, especially in the United States. Right now it is more visible, and you are being called to dig deep to understand how you want to encounter it. All-or-nothing thinking will not serve you in this, but taking action based on your real, grounded integrity may go far.

Aquarius Rising: You are allowed to be a new person every day if you want. There are no rules about how many times you evolve or how many new ideas you embrace. And, if you focus on transformations that serve you and uncover depth in who you truly are, you will be better served than if you try on disguises to cover up what resonates with you. The best way to find out who you want to be when you grow up is to start small and see where it leads you. This may be contrary to your visionary and expansive way of being, but the wise man can see a universe in a grain of sand, etc. Does the chair you are sitting on resonate with you today? If not, change seats. Does the drink you have taste great? Send it gratitude if it does. If you notice small preferences, it can lead to more freedom in your personal transformations. Then, change your mind tomorrow if you want. It’s allowed.

Pisces Rising: You are not your thoughts. If you find yourself focused or even obsessed about a certain person or experience this week, interrupt that thinking. If you need to 988 is a great resource for mental health support, whether or not you are in crisis. Your thoughts may feel particularly difficult to interrupt right now, and if this is the case, write them down, don’t repress them. Say them out loud to someone. The more you try to cover up obsessive or repetitive thinking, the more it becomes a pressure cooker. These thoughts are not necessarily something you need to take action on, and they are more about your internal transformation than external reality. If you don’t already have mental health supports, now is a really, really great time to find mental health support that works for you. Cognitive therapy can help you intentionally manage your thinking and somatic therapy can take you out of your mind and anchor you into your body. The important thing is that you understand thinking is just a body process. It is not who you are.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

How Full Are Your Cups?

Quiz: How Full Are Your Cups?

Thanks so much to those of you who have been following me in this project! It means so much to me, and it has been a true personal revolution to give myself the freedom to dig into horoscopes and spells each week. It means a lot to me that you read and share and comment, whether you do it directly to me or on the apps. So, thank you! Please continue to like and share, if you feel so inclined! <3

I made a short quiz (click on the image below to access it), which should take less than 5 minutes to access. It asks you some questions to get you thinking about the four cups in your life. Are they overflowing or stagnant and depleted?

The quiz is totally free and just meant as a check in. I don’t get access to your answers, and no sign up required. Access it below or at my new website (eep!) https://fourthcupastrology.com.

I am using the name Fourth Cup for my emergence into more public astrology because in the fall of 2025, when I pulled Tarot cards, the Four of Cups came up for me over and over. Alright, rude, I thought. But, it came up enough that I had to sit with it more.

This is the traditional Rider Waite image, where a young person sits, pouting, and staring at their three beautiful cups, believing they do not have enough, while they ignore the universe handing them a fourth cup:

This is the version in one of my favorite decks, the Chris-Anne Muse deck, which shows another young person, looking like a woman, who is also bummed about her three cups. She has three great cups, but are they enough? Why doesn’t she have more? And she doesn’t see that she is sitting inside of her enormous energetic cup, surrounded by her spirit guides.

Each of these examples show how we can use our individual correspondences and what resonates with us personally to draw out a protest spell. Some of us may protest in groups, on streets, at home, or in cookies. All of this matters.

For the most effective protest-spell casting, we can craft intentional spells, and I’ll go into examples of that below.

Superstition Versus Intention

One of the most important steps in making our protest intentional is to understand the difference between superstition and intention.

Superstition is essentially fear about technicalities. This can keep us stuck and self-scrutinizing. When we are vigilant that we might do something wrong, we are not taking action and this means that we are not protesting or creating the lives we want. This is the most basic way we let oppression win.

We can honor the power of the spell casting that we are already doing, understand that the spells we cast have impact, and also release superstitious fear.

Intention is a unification of your mind, body, and spirit toward a purpose. This means that your conscious self sets a direction for all of your parts to follow. If your body or spirit is not aligned with this direction, you will experience dissonance, and this gives you the opportunity to do personal alignment work, which is honestly both liberating and devastating to the institutions that keep us oppressed.

Banishing and Welcoming

Whether you are protest spell casting for yourself, another person, or for your local community, the most effective protest spells include what you are welcoming, even if you are primarily casting a protection spell.

So, for example, “fuck ICE” is essentially a version of a banishment spell. It is not the most clear language because we use the word “fuck” to mean so many things in English, and so “abolish ICE” is clearer banishment language, but I don’t think Spirit is confused by what we mean when we say “fuck ICE.” Getting too caught up in particulars like that can be an example of superstition fear taking over.

In witchcraft we typically say, “I cast this circle to protect us from all positive and negative energies and forces that may come to do us harm.” That is too long for a protest sign, maybe, but the sentiment is similar to banishment. Essentially, “should you bring harm to this space, that harm will be visited on you instead” or “this space is sacred and surrounded by safety” or “I’m rubber and you’re glue.”

Most protest focuses on banishment AND the most effective protests also remember to include what we want to see in place of the oppression we are banishing. For example, most protests remind us of neighborhood solidarity, music, dance, art, safety and support, diversity, belonging.

So, when you are creating your protest signs or casting your spells at home, what do you want to bring in? That is just as important, if not more important, as what you want to banish and protect against.

Protest-Spell Crafting

These are the steps I recommend for crafting a protest spell. You can talk these through with a friend, write them in a journal, or think them through in voice memos to yourself (whatever works for you):

1. What do you want to banish from your life or environment? What are you protesting? (e.g. “I want to banish violence” or “I want to banish government intrusion on my community.”)

2. What are ways that you might benefit from status quo? (e.g. I don’t like change, I want people to follow the rules as I see them, I don’t like seeing people upset, I don’t want to disappoint people, etc.). The more honest you are about this one, the more effective your spell will be.

3. If you imagine the banishment completely successful, and in its place, you find the ideal outcome for you, what would that be? (e.g. safety for everyone in my community, thriving business, supportive friendships, equitable and supportive leadership, etc.)

4. Be honest with yourself about whether you are willing to release the ways you benefit from status quo in order to welcome the ideal outcome for you. This is uncomfortable, but ultimately so is status quo. Be brave!

Now, write your spell. “No” is a powerful spell if it is paired with what you do want. So if your spell is a protest sign, it may look like “No violence” or “violence” on one side and then, “Safety for All” on the other side. If you’re good at creating fun slogans, you can get creative with this, but clarity is important.

If your spell is for you at home, I suggest writing it like this (just as an example you can adjust to your answers above), “I, [name], release violence from my life. I release attachment to status quo and resistance to change. I welcome safety for all in my community.” Then, light a candle to honor your intention or integrate this into your other altar practices. I like to burn spells like this (safely) because fire witchcraft is important to my practice.

Because the human brain does not hear the negative, and positive statements are more effective, it also works, especially for protest signs, to only include the statement of the ideal result you want. For example, it is more effective to tell someone “Please walk” than to say “Don’t run” because the human brain just hears “run.” Take this into consideration in your spells, but in my experience clear banishment in the form of a simple “no” can be helpful and effective.

Sabotage Spells

A sabotage spell happens when we speak into being the future we do not want to see. For example, many people say, “Voting doesn’t matter” or “It’s all fucked anyway” or “Things will never change.” Because the people who say these things usually want the opposite of what they’re speaking into being, these are sabotage spells.

Sabotage spells are something we all do, so there’s no need to fall into superstitious fear if this happens to you, feel bad if you catch yourself doing this, or suffer from the self-righteous expectation that you may be immune from this. If you accidentally speak into being a sabotage spell , all you need to do is bring that vision of the future or statement to your mind and then imagine a putting a white X over it. This neutralizes it so that you can move toward being more intentional with the spells you cast.

As Within So Without

One of the Hermetic principles that we follow in witchcraft and astrology is “as above, so below” and “as within, so without.” Spells are meant to transform us, align us, and magnetize what we do want to bring into being.

While spells have power in our outer environment that power primarily comes from the transformative power they have inside of us.

So, for example, a spell to try to control someone else’s karma or fate will bounce back to you in an unpleasant way that draws your attention to the issues you have around control. (For example, I did an ill-advised spell to try to welcome into being the Harris presidency and spent six months with rashes on my arms, which taught me a lot about control, ideals, and my relationship with my body.) Learn from me and don’t fuck with other people’s fate or karma.

Another example of this is that in an earlier post, I offered a hex on white supremacy. I highly recommend this to anyone, and also the spell is primarily meant to cleanse us of the infection of white supremacy within, so that we also heal our external environments. For me, my experience of this spell was like an exorcism of perfectionism from my body. Intense and incredibly liberating. And (did I say this already?) intense.

I say this because as you think about what you want to bring into being, consider your internal world and your body. As you cast a protest spell, you will receive the conditions to create that result within yourself, and sometimes that is hard.

Get support! Access therapy, coaching, yoga, basketball, or whatever modality supports you. Reach out if the modality for you is astrology!

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

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.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Spell Casting as Protest

Protesting for Introverts (and Extroverts)

A spell is essentially an intention spoken out loud. Spells are most effective when they are linked to our bodies and our unconscious belief systems because these are spells we intentionally and unintentionally take action to pull into reality. This is why healing our unconscious programming is important for intentional spell casting. And also, you can’t wait until you’re totally healed to cast spells because you’re already doing it.

Right now, most places in the world, there is some sort of interaction between fascist violence and community care and safety. This is true from Congo to Palestine to Venezuela to Ukraine to Tibet to the government takeover of US cities and kidnappings and murder of citizens. Many of us have seen this interaction in our personal lives as well, realizing that we may have idealized relationships that were not actually safe. In each of these spaces we see oppressive and homogenizing forces encountering community values of safety, care, and inclusion.

Protest energy is essentially spell energy, and whether you protest from home or on the streets, establishing spaces of safety and care is an act that matters.

This is one image that to me captures the power of individual intent in protest:

(Polka Dotted Dress lady in New York flipping off ICE tanks. If you know who I should be crediting here for the photo and the protest spell, let me know, but it was not immediately obvious to me in my search, so my apologies if it’s you.)

“Fuck ICE” or “abolish ICE” are examples of protest spells often cast in group protests in the US right now.

Some do it cute:

(Photo I took at a 2025 protest.)

For more introverted protesters, one way to put this spell into being is to draw into your mind’s eye the thing or person you want banished from your space and then imagine drawing a white X over that image and casting it out of your mind. This acts as a protest banishment.

This is how one local store captured that protest spell as a visual:

(Shout out to Noisette Pastry Kitchen, which, as Jack Kerouac would say offers baked goods that are “delicious and, of course, nutritious.”)

Each of these examples show how we can use our individual correspondences and what resonates with us personally to draw out a protest spell. Some of us may protest in groups, on streets, at home, or in cookies. All of this matters.

For the most effective protest-spell casting, we can craft intentional spells, and I’ll go into examples of that below.

Superstition Versus Intention

One of the most important steps in making our protest intentional is to understand the difference between superstition and intention.

Superstition is essentially fear about technicalities. This can keep us stuck and self-scrutinizing. When we are vigilant that we might do something wrong, we are not taking action and this means that we are not protesting or creating the lives we want. This is the most basic way we let oppression win.

We can honor the power of the spell casting that we are already doing, understand that the spells we cast have impact, and also release superstitious fear.

Intention is a unification of your mind, body, and spirit toward a purpose. This means that your conscious self sets a direction for all of your parts to follow. If your body or spirit is not aligned with this direction, you will experience dissonance, and this gives you the opportunity to do personal alignment work, which is honestly both liberating and devastating to the institutions that keep us oppressed.

Banishing and Welcoming

Whether you are protest spell casting for yourself, another person, or for your local community, the most effective protest spells include what you are welcoming, even if you are primarily casting a protection spell.

So, for example, “fuck ICE” is essentially a version of a banishment spell. It is not the most clear language because we use the word “fuck” to mean so many things in English, and so “abolish ICE” is clearer banishment language, but I don’t think Spirit is confused by what we mean when we say “fuck ICE.” Getting too caught up in particulars like that can be an example of superstition fear taking over.

In witchcraft we typically say, “I cast this circle to protect us from all positive and negative energies and forces that may come to do us harm.” That is too long for a protest sign, maybe, but the sentiment is similar to banishment. Essentially, “should you bring harm to this space, that harm will be visited on you instead” or “this space is sacred and surrounded by safety” or “I’m rubber and you’re glue.”

Most protest focuses on banishment AND the most effective protests also remember to include what we want to see in place of the oppression we are banishing. For example, most protests remind us of neighborhood solidarity, music, dance, art, safety and support, diversity, belonging.

So, when you are creating your protest signs or casting your spells at home, what do you want to bring in? That is just as important, if not more important, as what you want to banish and protect against.

Protest-Spell Crafting

These are the steps I recommend for crafting a protest spell. You can talk these through with a friend, write them in a journal, or think them through in voice memos to yourself (whatever works for you):

1. What do you want to banish from your life or environment? What are you protesting? (e.g. “I want to banish violence” or “I want to banish government intrusion on my community.”)

2. What are ways that you might benefit from status quo? (e.g. I don’t like change, I want people to follow the rules as I see them, I don’t like seeing people upset, I don’t want to disappoint people, etc.). The more honest you are about this one, the more effective your spell will be.

3. If you imagine the banishment completely successful, and in its place, you find the ideal outcome for you, what would that be? (e.g. safety for everyone in my community, thriving business, supportive friendships, equitable and supportive leadership, etc.)

4. Be honest with yourself about whether you are willing to release the ways you benefit from status quo in order to welcome the ideal outcome for you. This is uncomfortable, but ultimately so is status quo. Be brave!

Now, write your spell. “No” is a powerful spell if it is paired with what you do want. So if your spell is a protest sign, it may look like “No violence” or “violence” on one side and then, “Safety for All” on the other side. If you’re good at creating fun slogans, you can get creative with this, but clarity is important.

If your spell is for you at home, I suggest writing it like this (just as an example you can adjust to your answers above), “I, [name], release violence from my life. I release attachment to status quo and resistance to change. I welcome safety for all in my community.” Then, light a candle to honor your intention or integrate this into your other altar practices. I like to burn spells like this (safely) because fire witchcraft is important to my practice.

Because the human brain does not hear the negative, and positive statements are more effective, it also works, especially for protest signs, to only include the statement of the ideal result you want. For example, it is more effective to tell someone “Please walk” than to say “Don’t run” because the human brain just hears “run.” Take this into consideration in your spells, but in my experience clear banishment in the form of a simple “no” can be helpful and effective.

Sabotage Spells

A sabotage spell happens when we speak into being the future we do not want to see. For example, many people say, “Voting doesn’t matter” or “It’s all fucked anyway” or “Things will never change.” Because the people who say these things usually want the opposite of what they’re speaking into being, these are sabotage spells.

Sabotage spells are something we all do, so there’s no need to fall into superstitious fear if this happens to you, feel bad if you catch yourself doing this, or suffer from the self-righteous expectation that you may be immune from this. If you accidentally speak into being a sabotage spell , all you need to do is bring that vision of the future or statement to your mind and then imagine a putting a white X over it. This neutralizes it so that you can move toward being more intentional with the spells you cast.

As Within So Without

One of the Hermetic principles that we follow in witchcraft and astrology is “as above, so below” and “as within, so without.” Spells are meant to transform us, align us, and magnetize what we do want to bring into being.

While spells have power in our outer environment that power primarily comes from the transformative power they have inside of us.

So, for example, a spell to try to control someone else’s karma or fate will bounce back to you in an unpleasant way that draws your attention to the issues you have around control. (For example, I did an ill-advised spell to try to welcome into being the Harris presidency and spent six months with rashes on my arms, which taught me a lot about control, ideals, and my relationship with my body.) Learn from me and don’t fuck with other people’s fate or karma.

Another example of this is that in an earlier post, I offered a hex on white supremacy. I highly recommend this to anyone, and also the spell is primarily meant to cleanse us of the infection of white supremacy within, so that we also heal our external environments. For me, my experience of this spell was like an exorcism of perfectionism from my body. Intense and incredibly liberating. And (did I say this already?) intense.

I say this because as you think about what you want to bring into being, consider your internal world and your body. As you cast a protest spell, you will receive the conditions to create that result within yourself, and sometimes that is hard.

Get support! Access therapy, coaching, yoga, basketball, or whatever modality supports you. Reach out if the modality for you is astrology!

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of January 5, 2026

This week, we continue to be in the dark of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and we are entering a new year that has a number of astrological challenges. I say that not to be bleak but because the winter is a time of rest and renewal. It is a time to let your frozen ground lie dormant under leaves the trees released.

If you plan for challenges ahead, my hope is that you take more seriously the chances you have to rest now (assuming they present, and holding the awareness that for some people rest is a privilege). Now is the opportunity to release anything that drains your energy but does not replenish it.

(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:

• Jupiter continues in Cancer, and the Sun, Venus, and Mars all join each other this week in Capricorn, as they approach opposition to Jupiter. (Mercury is also in Capricorn and quickly approaching the same conjunctions/opposition.) The conjunctions start on Tuesday, January 6, 2026, and continue through the week. The first opposition becomes exact on Friday, January 9, 2026. This emphasizes the Cancer/Capricorn polarity in the sky. Both Cancer and Capricorn are feminine or yin signs, and both are cardinal signs. Cancer is a water sign and Capricorn is an earth sign. They have similar emphasis on safety and stability, and yet they are opposites in many ways. Cancer represents the hearth an home, or the nest. Capricorn represents the outer institutions. This polarity asks how our loyalties are in tension with our ambition. They ask how our local community is in tension with broader institutions.

• On Saturday, January 11, 2026, at 8:13am, Venus squares Chiron, and then the other planets in Capricorn approach that square as well, as we go into the next week. This puts the spaces where we are wounded on blast, though at this point Venus and Jupiter both square Chiron and offer some healing, despite the spotlight on pain.

• Uranus continues in Taurus, and Pluto continues in Aquarius, as long-term themes.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of January 5, 2026:

Aries Rising: When your roots are solid, the branches of the tree of your life can grow more expansively. This week, you continue to experience expansion in your home and inner world, while you have activity and focus on your public life or career. You may feel busy with ups and downs in your public life, but grounding into the nest of your home will stabilize the rest. If you have felt wounding around your identity and what it means to be you, these will experience some opportunity for healing, even if healing is painful.

Taurus Rising: Your inner child is the root of the tree of your ideals and higher beliefs. The more you expand your inner child’s presence and allow them to occupy space, the more the shifts you’re experiencing in your ideals will have room to become something tangible. You may be more comfortable with ideals that seem structured and logical, or ideals that support you in getting the results you want, but this week asks you to make room for the expansion of childlike ideals. What are your ideals around play? What are your ideals around imagination? What are your inner child’s dreams and visions of possibility? Sometimes the most practical ideals are the most innocent.

Gemini Rising: Other people’s projections about your version of abundance is just information for you to consider as you expand how you think of an abundant life. What you value and your version of abundance is expanding, and other people might have thoughts about that. If they approve, you might be inclined to be drawn toward their version of abundance. If they disapprove, you might want to rebel against them or shame yourself. What you see as abundance does not need to be the same as other people’s, and being different and uniquely you does not have to threaten your ambition. You have a structured understanding of what other people value (cookies=good, punches in the face=bad), but abundance is not that literal. Look inward to what you value and use other people’s projections about you as information, not as a rule you need to follow.

Cancer Rising: What feeds you feeds your partnerships as well. Because of activity happening with your closest accomplices, you may feel a push-pull between what you need in order to expand into who you are becoming and how you show up as a partner. Filling your cup allows your energy to overflow to your partnerships rather than getting into a tug of war. Relationships are not pie, and so expanding you expands others as well. If you feel wounded around your experience in your public or career life, taking time to deeply know yourself and who you are becoming, while you pay attention to the partners who support you will offer some healing. It doesn’t change the past, but it can help you grow into a new version of you.

Leo Rising: Healing your mind heals your body. This week is a good time to look at your daily routines and how they support your mental and physical health. You may have a history of setting rigid or ambitious schedules for yourself and trying to live up to idealized standards of mental or physical health. This type of ambitious schedule can be supportive or it can be punishing and destructive. The key is paying attention to the results you see. For example, Western culture (and many Eastern cultures for that matter) puts a lot of emphasis on skinniness as a symbol of health. But, the correlation between skinniness and health is tenuous. If you achieve skinniness, but develop a heart condition from the stress of your strategies, your routines do not serve you. As you expand your thinking around woundings you’ve experienced related to your ideals, you may receive important insights as to how to structure your routines in a supportive way.

Virgo Rising: Draw inspiration from your friend groups and social circles in order to focus on the creative projects you care about. The spotlight is on your babies right now, whether they are material, human, or otherwise. You may have somewhat rigid structures and set ambitions for how what you create looks to the world, and this week you may want to consider the more tender and loyal way you handle your friend groups. If you treat what you create with the kindness you would use toward a friend, you may experience the ups and downs of creation with more ease. Any wounding you’ve experienced related to other people’s judgments and values about your creativity may receive some healing towards the end of the week.

Libra Rising: Let your career nurture your home life and internal world. You have some ambition or maybe even external pressure to make your home and most personal spaces appear a certain way, and you may see your career spaces as places where you create nests and comfort. This week, the two are connected, and the expansion you’re having around your career may be able to offer some comfort to the chaos at home. The wounding you’ve experienced in partnerships should receive some healing, or at least some activation that invites a positive transformation, as you expand in your public life and manage the activity at home.

Scorpio Rising: Allowing your ideals to expand supports your local community. It is hard to let go of old ideals or belief systems, but allowing them to grow into something new does not necessarily mean rejecting the old. A lot of activity is happening in your local community, with your siblings, or related to your early childhood beliefs, and this activity is supported by the expansion you’re experiencing related to your ideals. In other words, it’s a good week to get out and protest. If you’re worried about your health related to protests, mask up. Reach out to organizers to ask about health-related accommodations. Stay safe, but now is a great time to support positive changes in your local community.

Sagittarius Rising: It is just as important to learn to receive as it is to give. Your finances, values, and concepts of abundance are experiencing major activity right now, both positive and negative. But, the abundance of people around you is undergoing major luck. If your partner got a big holiday bonus, let them support you in your abundance too. It is not either/or and abundance is not a competition. If you have been rigid or approval-seeking in how you see money or abundance, now is a time to question that. You don’t have to be the best to receive, you just have to be open to connection and support. If you have some wounding around children or creative projects, letting yourself receive may send some healing to that.

Capricorn Rising: Celebrate your partners and accomplices in their successes. It may seem like your ups and downs are creating chaos in your life, while things are smooth sailing for your closest partners, but what benefits one person benefits all. If you get into either/or thinking this week, you are the one who will lose. If you can celebrate your partners’ wins, their expansion will overflow to you. If you harbor wounds related to your home life, celebrating your partners and releasing some of the rigid ambition you hold for yourself could help ease some of this, even if it doesn’t erase the past.

Aquarius Rising: Healing the body heals the soul. We are spiritual beings in physical bodies, yes, but that does not diminish the impact our physical health and daily routines have on our mental health. If you are experiencing ups and downs, and even chaos, in your mental and internal life, take a walk, get outside. Do something that makes your body feel good. If that means eating ice cream, that’s okay, but consider expanding your daily routines and physical health practices to incorporate what makes you feel good long term, mentally and physically.

Pisces Rising: What you create is a gift to the people in your life. You are having a lot of activity in your friend and social groups this week, and if there’s a chance to show and tell your creative projects, take it. This is something that benefits you and your friends. It’s not selfish to offer other people what you’ve created or show off the baby pictures of your kids. People may love it one day or hate it the next, but that’s just the weather. The expansion you’re having around what you’ve created is the magic. If you have wounding around other people’s projections about your creations, remember that you’re allowed to listen to the support and throw out the rest.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Inanna Shadow Ritual

A journaling ritual exercise

Inanna is the ancient Mesopotamian name for the Goddess of Heaven and Earth, and her story focuses on the journey to the Underworld. Inanna was drawn to the Underworld, ruled by her sister, Ereshkigal, because she heard whispers that in visiting the Underworld, she would learn and grow. Ereshkigal’s husband, whom Ereshkigal loved dearly, had also died, and although none who enter the Underworld live, Inanna wanted to witness his funeral rites.

As Inanna prepared to descend, she armored up, gathering her lapis lazuli armor and jewelry around her, and told her faithful servant that if she did not return in three days, to petition the gods to save her from the Underworld.

(An ancient Babylonian carving of the Goddess Ishtar, a later version of Inanna, showing her ready for battle with her lion and eight pointed star symbol.

In order to enter the Underworld, Ereshkigal required Inanna to abandon her armor and jewelry at the gate, stripping Inanna of power. When Inanna arrived, powerless and naked, into the throne room of the Underworld, the judges of the underworld surrounded her and condemned her. Ereshkigal turned the eye of death upon Inanna and Inanna died. They hung her corpse on a hook on the wall.

Three days passed, and Inanna’s faithful servant petitioned the gods to save her from the Underworld. Only the God of Wisdom, Enki, would intervene. He fashioned two nonbinary beings to go to the Underworld to save Inanna. When they arrived, they found Ereshkigal still mourning her husband, wailing at the pain of her loss. The beings sat with her and mourned with her. When she wailed that her heart was broken, they wailed with her that their hearts were broken too.

Because of their empathy, Ereshkigal allowed them to revive Inanna and take her from the underworld. But, as they were leaving demons attached to Inanna and told her they would need someone to replace her. The Underworld would not allow anyone to leave without a replacement. The demons returned to Inanna’s palace with her, and they came upon her faithful servant. The demons told Inanna she could be released and they would take the servant in her place. But, Inanna saw the servant despondent at Inanna’s loss, in dirty mourning garments, and awaiting Inanna’s return after having petitioned the gods to intervene. Inanna refused to let them take her faithful servant in her place.

The group approached loyal friends and servants throughout the palace, but Inanna would not let them take those who had been loyal to her and mourned her absence. Finally, they came upon Inanna’s husband, who was lounging in fine clothes and indulging in a buffet while she suffered in the Underworld. Inanna allowed the demons to take him in her place because of his lack of empathy.

This is one of the translated original versions of the story.

Inanna and Shadow. The story of Inanna tells the allegory of a descent into shadow or into the exile parts of human experience or human psyche. We use the term “shadow” to refer to parts of ourselves, of our psyche, that we are not willing to accept or that we think are wrong or bad. In Internal Family Systems Therapy, these parts are also called “exiles.” So, for example, if you were too loud or opinionated or emotional as a child, you may have been told you should be smaller. The loud, opinionated, or emotional part of you would be shut down and put into “shadow” or exiled.

While the hero’s journey told from a male perspective often focuses on a triumph of the will and embracing inner power over an external foe, Inanna’s story is one of delving into the depths of experience in order to grow. It is a story of the importance of empathy.

(Photo of the Cancer full moon January 2, 2026)

Pema Chodron tells a story, and I believe it is in the lecture Awakening Compassion about a man being bullied in a bar. In the story, he has a new leather jacket he is proud of, and a group of bullies take it from him. The man feels shame, and then as he is feeling shame, he realizes that there are millions of other people in the world also feeling shame. Although shame appears as a disconnection from the people around him, as badness, or otherness, actually it connects him to all of humanity.

Nobody escapes human existence without feeling shame, terror, loss, loneliness, and other painful emotions. Nobody escapes the underworld of human experience. In fact, Inanna, the Goddess of Heaven and Earth, knows she will grow from this, and she does. She learns what it means to be powerless and bereft, relying on those who are loyal to her. And she learns what it means to be supported.

She also learns the value of empathy.

Inanna and Empathy. It is through our own experiences of painful emotion that we learn to understand, on some level, the experience of those around us. Inanna approaches her mourning sister, saying that she wants to observe the funeral rites of Ereshkigal’s beloved husband. She wants to watch the show.

Anyone who has experienced grief will understand Ereshkigal’s reaction to this voyeuristic attitude. One time, I was in the hospital, waiting for my father to get out of a very serious emergency surgery, and people my family knew from church came to the hospital. I guess they thought they would keep us company? They started chatting with each other, talking about what they were going to have for dinner, and I could not wrap my brain around the fact that they had invaded our sacred family space to talk about their own personal interests. They wanted to watch. If I had the eye of death, I would have turned it on them. And I have seen those experiences over and over.

It is empathy that teaches us how to sit at a funeral and mourn with the mourners, like the nonbinary saviors do in Inanna’s story.

When Inanna returns from the Underworld, she learns who supported her and who feasted during her suffering. This is another empathy lesson.

Inanna and the Present. Many of us have been on an underworld journey or journeys, perhaps throughout the past year and perhaps over the past decade or longer. As I am writing this, it is early in January of 2026, and we are in the wintertime, the time of Inanna in the Underworld. In the Spring, she returns to earth as the sun returns. There is seasonal and personal correspondence with the story as I am writing it.

I am returning right now from a literal journey to help a family member who is in mourning and was going through a surgery. I spent the past months in Texas, which for me is an Underworld, contrary to my natural inclinations and affinities.

(Photo of Monument Valley I took on my journey into the Underworld.)

But, in many ways this has been a year of waking up to the ways that the world around us is harsh and unforgiving, especially to people with exploited identities. What do we do with the understanding that some people will never support us? How do we return to life after our journey into nakedness, powerlessness, and depths of isolation?

The story of Inanna is redemptive because through her journey, not only do we learn empathy and that there is value in sitting with pain, but also we return with freedom to leave behind unsupportive and exploitative relationships. While there is pain and grief in this, there is also freedom and renewed connection with our closest accomplices.

Inanna Journaling Ritual. Get out a piece of paper, blank document, or journal. If you prefer voice notes, open a voice recording.

If you have it, pull out some Lapis Lazuli, and put it near you or hold it in your hands.

Journal about the following:

1. What possessions do you have that make you feel powerful? This could be clothing, jewelry, property, household items, or anything else that reminds you of your power. How do you feel when you are around these items? Why? What resonates with you about them?

2. When did you recently hear of someone else mourning a loss? How did you interact with that situation? What judgments do you have about how you handled this or how the other person handled this? What “shoulds” come up for you about how either of you should have handled this?

3. Have you ever mourned a loss? This could be a death or even a disappointment. How did you feel? What judgments did you have, or do you have now, about how you should feel?

4. Imagine your guides, angels, and ancestors surrounding you (these are only comforting beings who have your best interests at heart like the nonbinary saviors in Inanna’s story). They offer you only compassion and empathy and they feel the pain of your loss with you. What messages do they have to offer you?

5. For each judgment you listed, write them down on a piece of paper, but before each sentence, write “I am human, and humans sometimes [judgment]. I love myself when I [judgment].” So, for example, if Inanna were a human, she might write, “I am human, and humans are sometimes voyeuristic instead of empathetic. I love myself when I am voyeuristic.”

6. Light a candle in honor of the return of Inanna to the heavens, and (only if you can do it in a fire safe way!!!) say each statement out loud as you burn them. If it is not safe for you to burn them, you can still read them out loud and tear them up or put them in water. So, take each statement, offer yourself love around the judgments in order to integrate the shadow or exile, and release each one. These are spaces where we offer ourselves kindness and empathy, not spaces where we punish ourselves.

This can be an intense process, and I recommend processing shadow or exile parts work with a therapist. The National Suicide Hotline is also available at 988, and I absolutely encourage you to access that resource if your thinking has turned against you.

Ultimately, Inanna had to release her ego, symbolized by her jewelry and armor, in order to go through the death and rebirth process of the Underworld. Ego releasing is very challenging and can be painful, but once we release the judgments we have, we are freed from the prison ego creates. While healthy ego is wonderful and defines who we are and what corresponds to us, when our ego exiles parts of us in order to maintain control, it becomes a cage. Integrating shadow an exile releases us from this cage, like Inanna’s return to her palace, with new strength and understanding.

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of December 29, 2025

This week is the new year in the Gregorian calendar. Happy newness as we transition toward lighter and brighter days (literally if not politically).

This week the tension between institutions and the ways we nurture our communities is highlighted.

How do you show patriotism? Patriotism has never meant blindly following corrupt leadership, but it also does not necessarily mean throwing ourselves or those we love into harms’ way with the hope others care.

This week consider that it may be a deception to completely embrace the nobility of suffering or completely condemn the baseness of comfort. Sometimes, fear is a signal that we’ve been conditioned to limit ourselves, and other times fear is a signal that we’re in danger. Life is a spectrum, and the polarities of either/or are only two points within or around that spectrum.

Consider whether your body is having a different reaction to your circumstances than your mind is and which one (body or mind) is typically more reliable in your experience.

(Photo by Mike Lewinski on Unsplash)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• Mercury in Sagittarius is the star of the show this week, squaring Saturn in Pisces on December 29, 2025, at 11:15pm Pacific, and then squaring Neptune in Pisces on January 1, 2026, at 5:33 am Pacific. Mercury square Saturn leads to interpreting communications more harshly than they are intended and could also bring doom-thinking. Mercury square Neptune, on the other hand, leads to people interpreting communications as they wished they were, not as they actually are. If you have important communications this week, write them down and be as literal as possible in order to avoid overly negative or overly positive interpretation.

• The full moon in Cancer happens on January 3, 2026, at 2:02am Pacific. This means the Sun will be in Capricorn and the Moon will be in opposite it in Cancer. Capricorn is the energy of institutions and systems, and Cancer is the energy of community and nesting. This full moon invites us to feel into places where we have sacrificed our community’s safety for the sake of institutions.

• Jupiter continues in Cancer, Uranus continues in Taurus, and Pluto continues in Aquarius, as long-term themes.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of December 29, 2025:

Aries Rising: Remember the work women contribute in your home life that allows you to have center stage in your public life. This week you are inclined to interpret what other people say as completely terrible or completely wonderful. The reality is somewhere outside of those polar opposites. Sometimes people are just saying words. Don’t let your wounded ego give you an excuse to diminish the support other people give you, especially the women around you.

Taurus Rising: Write down what you heard other people say before you get too certain about their intentions. You have been going through a process over the month of December of establishing new boundaries around how other people’s values impact the friends and groups you join. Your certainty over your own beliefs might feel rock solid right now, and still, there’s room to honor your childhood lessons. If the expectations, lessons, and values other people have imposed on you, now and as a child, feel wrong, choose compassion for yourself rather than self-righteousness against others. Focusing on them misses your relationship with yourself.

Gemini Rising: Take a pause before you hit reply. This week, you go back and forth between believing the worst about communications from your closest accomplices and partners and overly idealizing what they’re saying. Reality lives in a different apartment building, which, admittedly might be more boring than the extremes filtering your perceptions this week. You are focused on other people’s values and priorities this week, but the full moon is there to remind you at the end of the week that your values are what bring you the best outcome. Consider whether other people’s values support and compliment yours, be realistic about this, and gravitate toward people whose values do.

Cancer Rising: The most flexible structures are the most earthquake proof and therefore the strongest. Your attempts in your daily life to find the “right” belief system, philosophical solution, or path to spiritual enlightenment, may wobble between existential crisis and eureka this week, but the middle path is the one to trust. Similarly, if your focus is too much on your accomplices and partners, you may become too self-sacrificing—preventing people from partnering with you at all. Daily reality anchors us in our search for enlightenment like our partnerships with ourselves anchor us in our partnerships with others.

Leo Rising: What we create externally is only an outward expression of our inner life if we are authentically ourselves. If we are worried about conforming to other people’s expectations, rather than enforcing our boundaries around outside judgment, our creativity can stifle. Your relationship with your outer expression of your inner vision is going through a transition. The structures you follow in your routines are meant to support you, but if they stifle you, you may go into depression or self-doubt. Sometimes, you can’t please other people or prove to them that you’re good enough and care for yourself at the same time. Live up to your own standards, not the extremes other people project onto you.

Virgo Rising: Partnership is one experience of life, and it does not ruin our lives or solve our problems. You may be experiencing extreme thinking about your home and partnerships this week, and reality is more boring than doom or stardust. If you are suffering from extreme thinking, check in with your social groups for a reset. Now is a great time to focus on fun projects and the social groups you do them with, and both will likely help you step out of extreme thinking.

Libra Rising: Set and enforce your boundaries about how and where you spend your time every day based on your adult self’s care for your child self, not your inner child’s fears. The boundaries you practice now, even while they are confusing, will have long term impacts on how you handle your partnerships ongoing. Great boundaries are flexible and create safe partnerships; they are not prison walls that hold you in or vacuums that suck you dry. If it feels like home life and work life are in tension, release judgment and strictness, and allow your home structure to shine light on the brilliance of how you show up in your public life and career. That light from your home to your career is meant to be a spotlight you can shine in, not an interrogation lamp.

Scorpio Rising: Your personal value is not determined by what you create in the world. What we create is a reflection of what we value, but it is often a dim reflection. Your creations are not terrible or perfect, they simply are. Your judgments about them may be extreme this week, but this will pass, and in passing it may give you insights into what you truly value. Your local community and childhood conditioning are spotlighting. your larger belief systems this week, and this new moon gives you the opportunity to sit with your ideals and how they inform your values. Ideals live in the ether, and values live on earth. Together, they can help us understand how to align and be more effective in what we create in the world.

Sagittarius Rising: Who cares what other people think of you? Well, maybe you care is the answer, and that’s okay. This week you may be getting extreme messages at home or from your parents that swing between disappointment and praise. This is only information. Other people’s values may be different than yours, and you can take what is helpful and leave the rest. Don’t use this as an excuse to judge or condemn the values of the people around you, though. If you are able to use your clarity around what you value to support them, the returns to you will be impressive.

Capricorn Rising: Behind every successful person is a lot of emotional and physical labor of women. Honor that labor this week (including if it was yours!). If you’ve been learning about your boundaries related to siblings or local community recently, now is a great time to look at any unconscious extremes you fall back on. Do you over give or use rigid boundaries and rules to protect yourself from over giving? Look at your childhood conditioning around what it means to be independent or dependent. This week allows some tenderness related to partnerships and some opportunity to spotlight and support your partner or women around you. This might give you some clues around what it means to be truly yourself, and a supportive member of community, without falling back on rigidity or over giving.

Aquarius Rising: It is one thing to know change is good or “rejection is protection,” but it is a completely different thing to manage change and loss in a human body. Your mental and physical health are on spotlight this week, and if you have any unconscious self-doubt or self-abusive thinking, take that seriously and get support. Listen to doctors about your body and mental-health professionals about your brain. Your personal values and your identity are under major reconstruction right now, and there is no time like the present to get support. If you have personal judgments about what it means to engage in mental health support, that kind of rigidity will not serve you going forward. Bend and allow change because it is happening even if it breaks you.

Pisces Rising: What is cringe one day is trending the next. Don’t look to what people say about you to understand how you want to manage your personal boundaries and your expectations of yourself. Sometimes, it’s worth following through with a commitment, even if nobody knows about it. Other times, it’s worth disappointing people, even if it creates loss. Look to social groups that support and spotlight what you are creating to help you understand how you want to handle your personal boundaries and expectations. Your creative projects are getting a boost right now, so if you experience some haters, you can take their feedback as support for your next project or leave it if it’s not helpful. Focus on the people who spotlight you no matter what. They are the ones who will help you tune into who you want to become.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Hex White Supremacy

A ritual of protection from the harms of unfair favoritism for whiteness

This is a hex for white supremacy that I wrote, which you can use to begin the process or continue the process of releasing yourself from the harms of white supremacy. This is not intended to be associated with any particular witchcraft tradition, but is based on my experience of working with clients and myself on the essentials of releasing from the oppression of white supremacy and my personal experience of magic and manifestation.

If you are doubtful about your ability to engage with magic or manifestation, you can read the spell and think about how to engage with these concepts safely. Then, start to notice how your actions and inactions impact the world around you. That is enough as a first step.

If you are curious or confident about your magic and manifestation powers, make this right and safe for you and those around you!

This is the handwritten text, and it is typed out below (scroll all the way down) for better accessibility:

This is the text of the hex on white supremacy I wrote, and it is typed below for accessibility

What is a hex? My personal definition of a hex is “A ritual spell of protection from active harm.” This is not necessarily the definition others use, and some use hexes to cause harm, which I believe to be contrary to the essential principles of witchcraft. People can turn anything into a weapon, though.

If you use a different definition of hex, you can keep that, but don’t come at me about my definition.

The primary principle of witchcraft is “an it harm none, do what ye will.” This contains within it personal sovereignty as an essential right and respect of the sovereignty of others as a guide for conduct.

One way to think about respecting the sovereignty of others is that a hex should avoid interfering with the karma of others. This is because any time you put your fingers into another person’s karmic cycle, you get karmic backsplash. The less you agree with someone else’s behavior, the less you should insert yourself into their karma.

What is white supremacy? White supremacy is a system of favoritism for whiteness and qualities associated with whiteness. The concept of biological race was invented in the 15th century by people with lighter skin (“whiteness”) in order to justify theft of goods and services from people with darker skin. Unfair favoritism for whiteness is a source of economic, physical, and emotional dysfunction and suffering.

All of us enforce white supremacy in one way or another in western society, unless we are actively working to unlearn the assumptions and undo our participation in the systems that uphold white supremacy. The harms from white supremacy also impact all of us, even those who appear to benefit from it. Perpetuating unfairness creates more unfairness. Likewise acting with courage creates more courage.

White supremacy and having light skin are very different things. Healthy honoring of white ancestral history does not ask for unfair favoritism and is not violent against other cultural backgrounds. For example, I have Celtic ancestral origins, and the Celts, like other cultures, honored seasons, the earth, and community. We have also perpetrated incredible harms against people different than us. Both can be true. We can be accountable for harms and also honor our abilities to learn and grow.

Timing. You can hex white supremacy anytime, but as I am writing this we are starting the new calendar year and heading toward a Cancer full moon. This feels, to me, like an auspicious time to bring energy of what it truly means to be in community to my spells.

The moon will be in Cancer in the early morning of Saturday, January 3, 2025, and so Friday the 2nd or Saturday the 3rd capture this full moon energy if you want to use it. The full moon means that the Sun will be in Capricorn and the Moon will be in Cancer. Capricorn energy is associated with institutions and systems, and Cancer energy is associated with loyalty to the community. This is a good time to root out places where those manifest in unhealthy ways and commit to healthy expressions of both energies.

Do not place a timing expectation on this spell. This means, you may have to do ongoing work related to releasing white supremacy from your life, and this spell marks a commitment to do that work, not an expectation that it happen with no effort.

Steps. These are the steps to safely conduct this spell. If you follow a witchcraft tradition, use your system for casting your circle as you would with any other spell. This is not meant to replace your tradition.

1. Write out the spell on a clean sheet of paper. Parchment paper (like resume paper) is recommended, and it is recommended to use non-recycled paper so that old writings don’t mingle with your writing.

2. Gather representations of the elements and any protective deities, spirits, and ancestors who help and support you. For example, a candle can represent fire; water in a cup (I recommend a cup with no writing) represents water; music or a feather can represent air; and a crystal, rock, or oil you love can represent earth. Don’t overthink this. The important part is your intention, not the technicalities. If you intend to burn the spell, also gather a cauldron, pot, or other fire-safe container to put the burning spell into.

3. Go to a quiet space where you will not be interrupted. Either cast a circle or imagine yourself inside of a protective energy bubble.

4. Once you have a clear picture in your mind of the protective bubble around you, say out loud or in your head, “I clear this space of all positive and negative energies that may do me harm.” Invite any supportive spirits, guides, or ancestors to be with you.

5. Light your candle if you have one (SAFELY! If you light a candle, make sure you are in a fire-safe space with a fire-safe container).

6. Say the spell out loud, or if it is not safe to do that in your space, read through it and say it in your head. If you wish to burn your spell, do that now. Otherwise, you can set it aside.

7. Put out the candle using your fingers or a candle snuffer. Do not use this candle for another spell, but you can still light it and burn it down, remembering this spell.

8. Say, “This circle is open and remains unbroken. I send it to the cosmos to do my bidding.”

Text of the spell:

I, [name], ask in the name of the Goddess and the God to be granted freedom from the oppression of white supremacy.

I ask that my community and I be protected from all those who would use positive or negative energies of white supremacy to cause harm. I ask that the positive or negative energies of white supremacist harm be returned to those who send them out, for the growth and thriving of all.

I honor the beauty of Blackness.

I ask for the courage to encounter conflict, understanding that fear of conflict protects white supremacy.

I embrace my own flaws and mistakes, banishing perfectionism and defensiveness that would protect white supremacy.

I honor the space my body takes up and the sovereignty of the space others occupy. I release white supremacist favoritism toward smallness.

I embrace the wisdom of subjective experience and reality, releasing the deception of objectivity, falseness of exclusivity, and limitations of either/or thinking.

I ask for ears to hear feedback about where I have hoarded power or resources, and where I have tolerated others hoarding power or resources, that I might be restored to healthy and thriving community.

I release favoritism to whiteness.

I ask that my internal changes be reflected in my external environment.

I ask this be correct and for the good of all, harming none.

In no way will this spell reverse or place upon me any curse.

So mote it be.

UPDATE: I cast this spell on January 2, 2026, in the evening. This was very different than the Patriarchy Hex for me, and the experience was more like an exorcism than a gentle acknowledgment. I was staying in an AirBnB in Palm Springs, and I set off the fire alarm, broke the circle, and later experienced intense shame around my own judgments about what it means to get in trouble. My guess is that this spell will be experienced very differently by white people like me than people of other races, though I cannot be sure until you tell me your experiences.

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of December 22, 2025

This is the week after solstice, and we have started the days of Yule. This means the light is returning and the world is still in slumber.

This is time to check in on our neighbors, on our loved ones, and most importantly on ourselves. Where do you need rest? Where have you kept resources you don’t love that you are ready to release to people, animals, or nature that would love them?

All feelings are valid, but the thoughts that create them are often lies. This week, try out the mantras “All feelings pass if I allow them to be present in my body without resistance” and “Moral judgments create trauma, and I release them; boundaries create protection, and I enforce them.”

Photo by SIMON LEE on Unsplash of a broken statue mended with gold.

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• The Sun ingressed into Capricorn on December 21, 2025, and Venus is ingressing into Capricorn on December 24, 2025. This means that the Sun, Venus, and Mars are joining each other in Capricorn this week. When that happens, Venus and Mars disappear in the physical sky, and the Sun is the star of the show. Capricorn energy is the energy of institutions, ambition, responsibility, seriousness, and pessimism. Capricorn can have dominant culture energy and expectation that things be done as they’ve been done in the past. The symbol of Capricorn is the seagoat, an ephemeral creature with the ambitions of a mountain climber and the changeability of a fish. In Capricorn season, we revisit the traditions we follow, sometimes realizing they are fishy.

• Venus in Sagittarius squares Neptune in Pisces on Tuesday, December 23, 2025, at 9:30pm Pacific. This can be a moment of tension between our ideals about how we want our loved ones to show up for us, or the beauty we want to represent, and the reality of our lived experience or our self-judgment.

• Jupiter in Cancer squares Chiron in Aries on Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 2:07am, and Mercury in Sagittarius trines Chiron in Aries on Saturday, December 27, 2025, at 4:14pm. The square asks us to look at spaces where our growth may have outpaced our actual healing and processing. The trine allows us to give voice to spaces where our wounds are still present and allow us to offer healing for others.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of December 22, 2025:

Aries Rising: You can either win the battles or the war this week, but not both. If you spend your energy trying to prove you’re right to the people around you, your prize will be sitting in a room alone, while they party without you. Diplomacy is not weakness, it is being strategic about a long game. If you turn inward, instead of fighting every outward battle, you’ll be better able to say what you really want to say by the end of the week. Disappointment around what you unconsciously thought the rules of life were could unsettle you or make you self-conscious this week, and those feelings may help you in your mission statement. Spiritual bypass will do you a disservice.

Taurus Rising: Let being you be simple. You are a multi-faceted snowflake, of course, but who you truly are does not need to be complicated or confusing. If other people misunderstand your ideals, that is their confusion, not yours. Create (or revisit) your mission statement for life. Write it in 3-5 sentences, no more. Even if who you are has changed dramatically since 2018/2019, you are still you, and saying who you truly are is becoming simple, even if it’s not easy. If you feel self-consciousness or let down about other people’s values or your idealism of your friend group, those feelings will pass.

Gemini Rising: If your values and the wounds you’ve experienced through social groups are in tension, talk to your most trusted accomplices about it. You don’t have to maintain social groups that are at odds with your values, but you also don’t have to let go of groups when you aren’t ready. You hold your personal values dear and they are intimate to you. There is nothing wrong with that. Also, your trusted partners may have values you can adopt and nurture this week that may speak to unconscious changes you’ve experienced since 2018/2019. At the end of the week, your partners may have supportive words about the wounds you’ve had in your social groups. Wounds don’t have to heal fully in order for you to move forward.

Cancer Rising: Hiding who you are does not heal the wounds you’ve experienced in your career or public facing life, and that’s not really an option right now anyway. Who you are has gotten bigger, and now is not the right time to decide whether that conforms with your ideals or not. Your duties to your partners and accomplices may feel in tension with the personal growth you’ve experienced, but integrating that tension may be part of your ongoing growth. The mundane supports insights into your wounding and your growth. If you are self-conscious or disappointed about your health or daily routine, those feelings will pass.

Leo Rising: There is a saying, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” and while that saying normally sounds to me like judgment and pressure, there’s some love and sparkle in that saying for you this week. There’s a spotlight on your daily routine, everyday structures, and mundane support systems right now. If you’re tired, sleep. If you’re sick, eat some soup and give your body what it needs. Play with your pets and attend to your everyday needs. If your ideals have been crushed by (gesturing widely), focus on one thing you can do in your daily life to be healthy. At the end of the week, take some inspiration from children or your inner child about how your ideals might be able to move forward, without hiding the wounds they’ve received. If you feel some self-consciousness about your creative problems or children, those feelings will pass. Hold your creations to a compassionate, not idealistic, standard.

Virgo Rising: In the entrepreneurial world, the phrase “ship it,” has been advice to startups that means, basically “Perfect is the enemy of good.” Sometimes you have to test a product to know if it’s worth investing in before you perfect it. The kids these days say “ship it” to mean they support your romantic relationship. This phrase works for you this week when it comes to your creative projects, but not your romantic relationships. Create what you want to create this week, and see what your friends and social groups think. Wounding around your partners’ or accomplices’ values are on blast, and the end of the week will bring insights into how you can move forward around that, even if you are not fully healed. If this makes you self-conscious about your home life, those feelings will pass.

Libra Rising: Sometimes you just need to go home, lock the door, and sort your spices, color code your clothes, or alphabetize your books and records. If your expansion in your work and public life feel at odds with what you “need” to do at home, it’s okay to push pause and focus on home. Your luck won’t pass you by. The lessons you’ve learned about overextending or over-promising in your daily life might make you self conscious around your siblings or local community, but those are feelings that will pass. Your career expansions are also bringing up your woundings around partnership early in the week. Later in the week, insights from your siblings, local community, or early education will help express that wound so that you can move forward, even if you are not totally healed.

Scorpio Rising: If your babies (creative, human, animal, or otherwise) are not living up to your ideals, and this makes you question your values and investments, feel those feelings, but don’t act out of them. Make sure your values are informing your health, even if your ideals are in tension with your health right now. Values are different than ideals in the same way that having a dollar bill in your hand is different than a speculative investment opportunity. For example, if you have a vision of what your body should be, that might be in tension with chronic health issues or even the reality of aging. But, values such as truth, freedom, and travel can offer support. You are human and have a human body. Your childhood lessons may also be in tension with the ideals you have around your health this week, and sitting with this tension does not need to limit you if you can allow your ideals to serve you instead of you serving them.

Sagittarius Rising: Compare=despair this week. Idealism around keeping up appearances may sneak up on you, and it is not your friend. If you feel self conscious about how you look or the chaos in your house, it is just a feeling. If your partners and accomplices seem luckier than you for no good reason, remember that their luck and expansion contributes to your growth. It does not need to be a power struggle or an either/or. If you have wounding around what you create (material, fur, or human babies), and the tension between creation and money, the next month will help you define what you truly value and how expressing who you truly are can help you move forward in what you create.

Capricorn Rising: Being feminine includes having boundaries. Boundaries can be resilient, flexible, and adapt to your real life, and they can still be feminine. Whatever gender you are, you include femininity because you are human. The feminine principle in astrology refers to receiving, allowing, and generating through welcoming. You may have absorbed narratives, as we all did, as a child or feel judgment through your local community about what it means to be a perfect woman. These feel terrible, but that is just a feeling. You don’t have to prove these wrong in order to notice they exist and release them. Your partners and accomplices may trigger your wounding related to home, but if you do some automatic writing or free writing later in the week, you may notice that you had insights and compassion for that wounding all along. You are the right person to heal you.

Aquarius Rising: Get some rest! You’ve been leading the charge with your friends and social groups, and now it’s time to focus inward. You can’t pour from an empty cup. This year, you entered into a profound portal of transformation, and for the next month, process the lessons you’ve learned about your mental health since 2008. Your values may give you some self-consciousness around your relationships in your friend groups (you may even regret having leant your friends some money), but these are feelings that will pass. If you need a final push to integrate the lessons you’ve been learning around boundaries around what you value and your money, sometimes those lessons are expensive. Sit with those feelings and validate them, without punishing yourself (if possible!). Punishment increases the behavior we don’t want. Compassion allows the behavior to change.

Pisces Rising: If you expect too much from yourself, you will be disappointed not by your actions, but by the idealism you use to oppress yourself. In your work life, you may be quickly able to see the truth and lead the charge, but that doesn’t mean you have to tailor who you are to work expectations (even if they’re fun) or dissolve into what you perceive to be expectations from your public-facing life. Translation: If you’re showing up late, you may need to just take a day off. If you plan to go to the friend party rather than work event, it’s kinder to tell people, rather than expecting yourself to do both. If your money has taken a hit, or you have wounds around taking risks with money, you may get good advice from people at work, and that doesn’t mean you are a disappointment. It’s vulnerable to get advice, and it helps move our creative growth forward.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Hex the Patriarchy

A ritual of protection from the harms of unfair favoritism for maleness

This is a hex for the patriarchy that I wrote, which you can use to begin the process or continue the process of releasing yourself from the harms of the patriarchy. This is not intended to be associated with any particular witchcraft tradition, but is based on my experience of working with hundreds of clients on the essentials of releasing from the oppression of the patriarchy and my personal experience of magic and manifestation.

If you are doubtful about your ability to engage with magic or manifestation, you can read the spell and think about how to engage with these concepts safely. Then, start to notice how your actions and inactions impact the world around you. That is enough as a first step.

If you are curious or confident about your magic and manifestation powers, make this right and safe for you and those around you!

This is the handwritten text, and it is typed out below (scroll all the way down) for better accessibility:

Photo by me of the spell, which is typed below.

What is a hex? My personal definition of a hex is “A ritual spell of protection from active harm.” This is not necessarily the definition others use, and some use hexes to cause harm, which I believe to be contrary to the essential principles of witchcraft. People can turn anything into a weapon, though.

If you use a different definition of hex, you can keep that, but don’t come at me about my definition.

The primary principle of witchcraft is “an it harm none, do what ye will.” This contains within it personal sovereignty as an essential right and respect of the sovereignty of others as a guide for conduct.

One way to think about respecting the sovereignty of others is that a hex should avoid interfering with the karma of others. This is because any time you put your fingers into another person’s karmic cycle, you get karmic backsplash. The less you agree with someone else’s behavior, the less you should insert yourself into their karma.

What is the patriarchy? The patriarchy is a system of favoritism for fathers and first sons. Patriarchy as an economic concept that has fundamental anti-merit flaws and also has been warped into a number of cultural beliefs that unfairly favor men and maleness over other genders, such as rigid gender roles, infantilization of femininity, exceptionalism for upholders of patriarchy, forced birth policies, imposter syndrome, different body standards for men than other genders, stigmatization of emotion, and coercive silencing around abuse.

All of us enforce the patriarchy in one way or another in western society, unless we are actively working to unlearn the assumptions and undo our participation in the systems that uphold patriarchy. The harms from patriarchy also impact all of us, even those who appear to benefit from it. Perpetuating unfairness creates more unfairness. Likewise acting with courage creates more courage.

Patriarchy and masculinity are very different. Healthy masculinity does not ask for unfair favoritism.

Timing. You can hex the patriarchy anytime, but as I am writing this we are approaching the longest night in the northern hemisphere. There is a beautiful new moon in Sagittarius, and this feels, to me, like an auspicious time to bring nurturing, protective, and true energy to my engagement with harmful systems.

Night and the moon tend to be associated with the feminine principle, while day and the sun are associated with the masculine principle. Everyone has a spectrum of gender within them, not limited to masculine and feminine, and so when I say masculine and feminine I am not talking about men versus women.

Do not place a timing expectation on this spell.

Steps. These are the steps to safely conduct this spell. If you follow a witchcraft tradition, use your system for casting your circle as you would with any other spell. This is not meant to replace your tradition.

1. Write out the spell on a clean sheet of paper. Parchment paper (like resume paper) is recommended, and it is recommended to use non-recycled paper so that old writings don’t mingle with your writing.

2. Gather representations of the elements and any protective deities, spirits, and ancestors who help and support you. For example, a candle can represent fire; water in a cup (I recommend a cup with no writing) represents water; music or a feather can represent air; and a crystal, rock, or oil you love can represent earth. Don’t overthink this. The important part is your intention, not the technicalities. If you intend to burn the spell, also gather a cauldron, pot, or other fire-safe container to put the burning spell into.

3. Go to a quiet space where you will not be interrupted. Either cast a circle or imagine yourself inside of a protective energy bubble.

4. Once you have a clear picture in your mind of the protective bubble around you, say out loud or in your head, “I clear this space of all positive and negative energies that may do me harm.” Invite any supportive spirits, guides, or ancestors to be with you.

5. Light your candle if you have one (SAFELY! If you light a candle, make sure you are in a fire-safe space with a fire-safe container).

6. Say the spell out loud, or if it is not safe to do that in your space, read through it and say it in your head. If you wish to burn your spell, do that now. Otherwise, you can set it aside.

7. Put out the candle using your fingers or a candle snuffer. Do not use this candle for another spell, but you can still light it and burn it down, remembering this spell.

8. Say, “This circle is open and remains unbroken. I send it to the cosmos to do my bidding.”

Text of the spell:

I, [name], ask in the name of the Goddess and the God to be granted freedom from the oppression of patriarchy.

I ask that my community and I be protected from all those who would use positive or negative energies of patriarchy to cause harm. I ask that the positive or negative energies of patriarchal harm be returned to those who send them out, for the growth and thriving of all.

I ask for courage that my words and deeds align with fairness and equity for all genders, that I may correct patriarchal oppression when I see it, and that I rise to this challenge.

I ask for my eyes to be opened to any way I uphold the unfair advantages of maleness, so that I may return to balance.

I ask for my ears to be open to those who would reveal my blind spots about ways I uphold unfair advantages of maleness, so that I may return to balance.

I ask that the correction I make internally be reflected in my external environment.

I ask this be for the good of all, harming none.

In no way will this spell reverse or place upon me any curse.

So mote it be.

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

UPDATE: I cast this spell on December 17, 2025, and this was quite a mellow, affirming experience for me. In the weeks after, I was confronted with the experience of using the male gaze and scrutiny against myself. In all, this has been a supportive experience for me.

Horoscope Principles for the week of December 15, 2025

This week ushers in the winter solstice! Solstice is the time of the longest night of the year, and this year’s solstice happens at 7:03am Pacific on Sunday, December 21, 2025. It is a time of rest, recovery, and security.

In the lead up to this winter solstice, I am thinking a lot about the word “no.” The word “no” carries significant magic. Every time we say “yes,” we are saying “no” to many other things. Solstice asks us to be intentional with saying “yes” to our bodies and their need for rest and recovery. This requires strong and intentional “nos” to things, activities, and people who that not consistent with rest and recovery for our bodies.

For all signs, a magical solstice ritual right now is saying “no” to at least one thing, event, or person offering energy that is inconsistent with your body feel nourished and supported.

(Photo credit Benjamin Voros.)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• The sun in Sagittarius squares Saturn in Pisces on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at 8:33pm Pacific. This asks you to take accountability for your actions and inactions, regardless of what your intent was. It also asks you to release accountability for other people’s actions. When we take accountability with integrity, we can be realistic about how to change our behavior to build the lives we want.

• The new moon in Sagittarius happens on Friday, December 19, 2025, at 5:43pm Pacific. The moon squares Saturn and Neptune in Pisces on either side of this new moon. New moons are a time when the sun and the moon are in the same space in the sky, representing unified energy of the Sun and Moon. Sun is often associated with the ego, and the Moon with the emotions. New moons are a great time to set intention and start new projects. This new moon is activated by spaces where we may be taking responsibility for other people’s karma or where the systems and boundaries we relied on before seem confusing and no longer reliable.

• The sun in Sagittarius squares Neptune in Pisces on December 20, 2025, at 5:01pm Pacific. This transit asks you to take a nap! Seriously, don’t push through. Fall asleep during meditation. If you remember your dreams, tell them to a trusted friend. If you’re too sleepy to write them down, don’t let your idealism punish your body. Confusion is likely a sign you need to rest.

• Venus in Sagittarius squares Saturn in Pisces on December 20, 2025, at 9:08pm Pacific. Remember that nap you were going to take? Maybe extend it to a self-focus time. Other people are likely to frustrate you right now, and it’s okay to just separate yourself and set aside time to be alone. They’re going to notice your frustration if you don’t take the alone time you need.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of December 15, 2025:

Aries Rising: You are never wrong if, when you hear an idea that is better than yours, you are willing to change your mind and adopt that new idea. Byron Katie says that our beliefs are the thoughts we think all the time. This week, treat each roadblock as though it is an invitation to write a new religion, in which you are sovereign and the beliefs support your highest thriving.

Taurus Rising: If there is still part of you that thinks that when your friends jump off a bridge, you probably should have jumped first, now is the time to neutralize that pattern. When a friend, partner, or family member says something you find offensive, imagine the words in the air and painting a white X over them, neutralizing them. Just because you love someone does not mean you are responsible for their risky decisions or oppressive beliefs about you or anyone else. Try something new, like honoring your own values, and receiving only what is healthy and right for you from other peoples’ values. If this is confusing right now, study the relationship between actions and inactions and their natural consequences. Beliefs and values are the starting point for that.

Gemini Rising: An ally tentatively supports you from the sidelines, but an accomplice drives the getaway car when being who you truly are is at odds with oppressive, dominant culture. What it means to be an accomplice and to have accomplices has changed for you, and now is a good time to honor that change. Write three expectations you have of your accomplices and of yourself as an accomplice. Hold a funeral for the allies who have fallen away from your life and a welcoming ceremony for the new accomplices you are welcoming in. If you feel pressure to state your rules publicly, but confusion about how to do so, that just means that now isn’t the right time to go public. It’s okay to simmer with inner knowing and keep that private. You’ll know when it’s the right time to make an announcement to your TikTok following (hint: it’s when it feels great, not when it feels like an obligation).

Cancer Rising: Back away from the tinsel slowly. That’s right. Easy now. Put down the holiday expectations and burdens. Sit down and drink some cocoa. Watch that cheesy holiday movie. Look in the mirror and tell yourself, “You know what, self? You are right!” about nothing in particular. Don’t let the pressure to be a good parent, friend, sister, or community member become a way to oppress you. Your schedule is yours. Say “no” where you’re most scared to do it as a ritual to honor your sacred incarnation in this body. Things don’t have to become unworkable before you say a ceremonial “no.” Being who you truly are is not an ideal. It is an organic interaction between your spirit and your body.

Leo Rising: Before you judge your creative projects and babies (material, conceptual, fur, human, or otherwise) or defend them against outside criticism, consider what you’re defending them against. Is it possible you’re seeking approval from people who have disappointed you? Right now, other people may be projecting their own self-judgment, nonsense ideals, or rigid compliance with dominant culture onto you. Fighting with them and seeking approval from them are two sides of the same coin. Instead of focusing on them, renew your focus on your expression of creativity. Outside perspective is information about someone else, and only if you trust and admire someone related to the topic is it good information about what you create. Hold a new moon ceremony to honor your generative process.

Virgo Rising: In traditional Celtic handfasting ceremonies, you pledged your commitment to a romantic partner for a year and a day. Then, at the end of the year and a day, you reevaluated the partnership and whether it was healthiest to renew the vow or to make some kind of change. This week, consider making a handfasting vow to yourself. That may sound cheesy, but making a short-term commitment to focusing on your inner world and home life may ease some of the outside judgments and projections you’re feeling from your closest partners and allies. Are they projecting onto you or are your judgments about yourself filtering what they say? In the end it doesn’t matter because if you treat yourself with loyalty, your relationship with yourself can withstand projections even from those closest to you.

Libra Rising: The phrase, “Out of the mouths of babes,” apparently comes from a Biblical principle that basically says that Spirit reveals to children what education cannot teach. While this concept can be perverted to undermine the value of education, there is no denying that sometimes kids are uncanny. This week consider looking back on what you knew intuitively or learned naturally as a child (up to and around the age of 7) that has served you. You may have been facing obstacles, judgment, or confusion in your daily life that makes you question your early lessons and foundational relationships with siblings and local community. But, your inner child is still a little genius. This new moon is a good time to do a ritual honoring your inner child’s wisdom and the healthy lessons you learned in early life. Also, renew your commitment to reparenting your inner child where early lessons failed or caused harm.

Scorpio Rising: Money is energy all around us, and it is rude to reject it. Even if what you value in life is not money, the same principle applies. The obstacles and confusion you’ve experienced around creative projects and babies (material, conceptual, fur, human, or otherwise) may have made you question your values and abundance recently, but now is a great time to do an abundance ceremony. Remember that only capitalism says you have to produce and create to receive abundance. Your ability to receive what you value does not need to be tied to your labor or what you create. This week, write (or rewrite) your top 3-5 values, receive what the universe offers, and honor your natural abundance.

Sagittarius Rising: Be selfish. It’s not selfish to fill your cup or put on your oxygen mask first, but even if it is, be selfish. The demands of your home or most private spaces may feel punishing or confusing right now, but if you meet your own needs and commit to honoring yourself and your incarnation in this human body, you’ll be better able to navigate your home and private spaces. You don’t need to leave town to do this, and meeting your own needs shouldn’t feel exhausting, but if you want to treat yourself to an adventure or a date, now is a great time to do that.

Capricorn Rising: We all have inner critics, and all of our inner critics believe they are protecting us by being assholes. Your inner critic may be very active lately, and it’s likely that this protective part of you is pretty black and white. It may say something like, “There are truths and lies, and you can’t trust a liar.” The holiday season may bring up childhood lessons, challenges, and boundary issues that trigger your inner idealist (and not necessarily in an easy way). If this happens, the answer is not to receive or send out judgment and blame related to your childhood experiences, even if that is justified. The better path is to renew your relationship with reprogramming what you learned about boundaries at a young age so that your boundaries serve you now. If you don’t already have a structure for reprogramming your unconscious thinking, seek one out this week.

Aquarius Rising: Take charge of the holiday celebrations this week. You may naturally be a leader in your social groups, and this week is a great time to renew your license to party. The Beastie Boys would be so proud (single tear)! The only thing is that if you’re funding the party, check your bank balance first. If you’re fudging the numbers on the loans you’re giving to people (or taking from people), you’re going to find out pretty quickly. Just because you’re the party planner, doesn’t mean you get to be passive aggressive about people not paying you back or the work you put in that nobody asked for. Have people pay you upfront. Healthy boundaries around your finances may feel like a party killer, but it’s not. Good boundaries make safe parties, and safe is cool. DARE to say no to confusion around money while you say yes to your crew. I’m sorry this is a 90s after school special, but it’s in the stars.

Pisces Rising: Be the star of your own show. Your ability to take action and shine brightly in your career and public life is charged up right now. This is a good week to set clear intentions about how you want to show up and be seen in your public-facing world. You are ending a period of facing challenges around what it means to be who you are. Where does your flexibility end? How can too much stretching of the infinite capacity of what it means to be you result in carpal tunnel of the soul? The consequences you’ve faced for being overly accommodating may seem like they create challenges for fully showing up in public, but if you learn these lessons, it is possible for them to enhance the renewal of how you show up in pubic life.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.