ARIES
My parents and I moved from Iowa to Brazil the week after I turned fifteen. The internet was still a relatively new tool and the books I read didn’t paint much of a picture of what I would encounter. As open-minded as I strived to be, I had still packed a lot of preconceived notions and assumptions about what I thought it would be like to live in Brazil. I remember writing in my journal on the first morning of our arrival, “There are mango and avocado TREES outside our apartment.” Until that moment I never considered how or where a mango grew. Later, around lunch time, several people came with sheets of cardboard to lie out on the grass in front of our apartment building. I wrongly assumed they were homeless. Over time I discovered they were actually employees of the grocery store across the street taking their lunch break. When we finally returned to Iowa when I was seventeen, I felt almost as confused as I had when I first arrived in Brazil.
Aries, this week you may find yourself looking at a situation from the opposite direction. Perhaps you feel like a visitor in your own home, or perhaps the place you are visiting is starting to feel more like home. This process could become an incentive for bigger changes in your life.
(XVI Tower/ I See, I Say- Ebony Bones)
TAURUS
When I was a kid we had one of those pop-up campers that collapses into a rectangle and trails behind your vehicle. I remember waking up some nights when my family was camping in complete darkness. The bed didn’t feel much different from the bed I slept in at home so I would find myself very disoriented. There was no light to adjust my eyes to, so I’d just lie there listening for clues, which would come in owl hoots or my dad snoring.
Taurus, this week you may be orienting yourself using a different set of senses. Even if you can see where you are physically, you may now find it necessary to take stock of where you are in a spiritual sense. Keep your awareness open to a different set of clues.
(II High Priestess/ My Life’s All Right- Shira Small)
GEMINI
Some of my favorite hours as a teenager were the ones between when school let out and my parents got home. I’d open up the house and blast my music through the stereo in the dining room. I think my dog liked these hours too because I would let him roam the woods behind our house and then call him home for dinner. This was another moment where I came to understand waiting as its own arrival.
Gemini, this week you may feel suspended. Perhaps you are waiting for a specific result or maybe you are just waiting for something to change without a specific idea of what those changes might look like. Try to see this moment as its own arrival. This is an opportunity to sink more solidly into yourself before the next rock rolls.
(7 of Discs/ Shake a Hand- Little Richard)
CANCER
When my family first moved from the small town where I was born to the slightly larger town where I grew up, we rented a house that, as a kid, I thought was completely tricked out. My favorite part was the attic which was tucked away behind a trap door in the ceiling. It was pretty large as attics go and had a small “stage” (a 4 inch step) where I would give short babbling lectures to a selected audience of stuffed animals and dolls. It was the only stage I had ever felt comfortable on because it was so hidden.
Cancer, this week, you may be discovering new stages or places where you naturally shine. Perhaps you’ve always enjoyed these things in the privacy of your own home, now would be a good time to bring them down from the attic.
(Son of Wands/ One In A Million- Aaliyah)
LEO
I lived like a monk in Oakland when I moved there for the second time. I had my own studio apartment in a relatively quiet part of the city. I didn’t have a lot of friends because I had just moved from Minneapolis. I was finishing my undergraduate degree and so I spent most of my time reading or working on projects. I didn’t necessarily make anything in those days that I find particularly exciting these days, but the self-study I did during that time was and continues to be invaluable.
Leo, this week as Mercury goes direct there may be an unveiling of the ideas or things which were percolating when Mercury was retrograde. Perhaps you’ve been rather monk like, but starting this week, you may find yourself ready to run some flight tests on the things you’ve been working on in your solitude. Even if the only thing you were really working on was yourself.
(9 of Discs Rev/ Revolution- Nina Simone)
VIRGO
When I first moved into my previous apartment, I did not anticipated the extent to which not having parking would alter my life. If I came home past ten o’clock at night I’d find myself either circling the neighborhood for an hour looking for an open spot or I would be forced to park several blocks (Los Angeles blocks) from my apartment. Eventually, if I went out at night I wouldn’t come home until the following morning just so I didn’t have to brave the parking scarcity. Other nights I would decline invitations to go out because I had “a good parking spot.” Finally, I started pet sitting for friends and airbnb-ing my apartment. This actually turned into, for a short time, a full time job which not only resolved my parking conundrum but also took care of the scarcity in my bank account.
Virgo, this week it might be helpful to consider where a scarcity in your life may have created a sense of limitation. The scarcity might be real or just a way you are looking at a situation, but consider how you might be able to liberate yourself from the accompanying sense of constraint.
(Daughter of Wands L/ Don’t Let Me Drop- Gloria Weems)
LIBRA
A long time ago, when I was living in Minneapolis and experiencing the coldest winter my body, mind and soul had ever experienced, I made the decision to move back to California. I was reluctant at first because I couldn’t afford the move and my parents agreed to help me but only if I promised to finish college. There were a few long months between when I made my decision and my actual departure. During that time my best friend and I would go to a coffee shop on the far side of town next to a church which would announce its sermons on a glowing white sign out front. The sermon titles were like fortune cookies to us. I remember one day after a snow storm seeing the sign capped with snow and the sermon title was, “You shall live and not die.” Knowing I would be leaving, that I would “live and not die” set me free to enjoy the city even in the dead of winter.
Libra, as an air sign, you may have found all the watery Piscean energy in the air lately difficult. This week, give yourself something to look forward to and if you don’t, I will or the cards and stars will. According to the card I’ve pulled for you and the astrological weather ahead, there is a lot for you to look forward to. The wheel is turning and spring may have more than flowers in store for you.
(X Wheel of Fortune R/ I’m Having a Good Time- Alberta Hunter)
SCORPIO
Years ago when I first moved back to Oakland from the midwest, my brother and I made a plan to find an apartment together. At the time he had a beautiful apartment, but he shared it with two guys he had mixed feelings about. After a few days of looking at apartments on my own while my brother was in school, I started to realize that what I really wanted was to live alone. I wasn’t particularly messy, but my brother, especially at that time, kept his room as sparse and clean as a hospital. I knew I would be expected to adhere to a similar level of cleanliness and I wasn’t excited about following someone else’s rules. It wasn’t easy, at first, to explain this to my brother, but I think he eventually felt a little relieved, probably because in his version of living together, he imagined he’d be constantly cleaning up after me.
Scorpio, yours is the sign of intimacy and depth in relationship. This week, however, whether you live alone or with others, or whether you are in a relationship or single, you may find yourself appreciating and savoring your independence. Others may not initially understand your need to separate, but it probably won’t take long for them to realize that the time apart is in fact mutually beneficial.
(Priestess of Swords/ Woman Got A Right To Be- Caiphus Semenya)
SAGITTARIUS
The other day I cut off the bottom of an old t-shirt because it was too big, had a stain on it and I needed rags. A few days later I was wiping down the counters in the kitchen with one of the rags when I realized I was wearing the t-shirt it had derived from. It was a strange moment and feeling. I stopped short thinking about a scene from the movie I’d watched the previous night, “Houseboat.” In the scene Cary Grant tries to explain an idea to his son by demonstration. He extends a glass pitcher filled with water for his son to see, “Try to think of this pitcher as being me, my body. The pitcher on its own has no use except as a container for something. In this case it contains water which you can think of as being my life force. Now try to lose that.” He hands the pitcher over to his son, who then dumps it over the railing of the houseboat (where they live). “There!” His son says triumphantly. “The only thing is,” Grant explains. “It isn’t lost, it’s part of the whole river.”
Sagittarius, this week you may feel like you are sailing into a mystery, but you need not be afraid if you can remember that what you fear may be lost will just become part of the whole river. And if you stain your t-shirt, you can make rags.
(XVIII Moon/ Lord Keep Me Day By Day- The Caravans)
CAPRICORN
When I used to visit my grandparents, and eventually just my grandfather, after my grandmother passed away, I remember coming back to the house after a long day out and my grandfather would say, as if announcing our arrival to the house, “Home again, home again, jiggidy jig!” The phrase itself feels like home to me now and I find myself thinking it even when I’m no where near my actual apartment, when I’m just feeling at home in my bones. Over the years, having moved around quite a bit and having lived in different countries, I’ve found home to be a feeling more than an actual place. If home were an instrument it would probably be a theremin because finding it is like finding a certain note in the air, you have to slide back and forth a bit.
Capricorn, this week, you may find yourself saying something similar to my grandfather’s saying, “home again, home again, jiggidy, jig!” The funny thing is you may not even find yourself in a specific place, perhaps you are just surrounded by the right people or experiencing the right weather conditions or just feeling like yourself in the world.
(Priestess of Discs/ Ave Maria- Leontyne Price)
AQUARIUS
The apartment where we lived in Brasilia, Brazil was provided by the American School where my parents worked, but belonged to the British Embassy. It was very spacious and must have been quite luxurious in the late seventies when it was last updated. The kitchen looked like one you would find in a church basement and had just as many cupboards. In Iowa my dad made frequent trips to the grocery store, I think it was mostly an excuse to be alone, but in Brasilia the grocery store was across the street. Sometimes, if I couldn’t find my him, I’d cross the street in my flip flops and look for him in the grocery aisles as if it were just an extension of our apartment. The weather in Brasilia is pretty much always 75 degrees and sunny all year round so it was easy to forget if you were outside or inside and added to the feeling that the whole neighborhood was in the same room. When friends or family from the U.S. came to visit they always fell in love, with each other, or the fruit trees and especially with Brazil.
Aquarius, this week, where ever you are you may be feeling a sense of abundance, whether it is an abundance of cupboards in the kitchen or fruit in the trees. Perhaps you are entertaining guests or just entertaining a feeling that your neighborhood is all hanging out in the same room.
(III Empress R/ A Love Supreme- Alice Coltrane)
PISCES
Years ago, when I lived in Minneapolis, rent was so cheap that people would often try to find ways to make it cheaper. I remember being at a party once and talking to someone who said they were renting out the stairs at a punk house. “I don’t understand,” I said. “I mean how do you sleep on the stairs? Is there a landing?” They tried to explain it to me in words, but to really understand would have required drawing a diagram. At the time, I had four roommates myself which felt like a lot. I used to drive to St. Paul to be by myself.
Pisces, this week, you may find it necessary to get some time alone if only to hear yourself think. Whether or not you are sharing your home or stairs with anyone there may be a lot of emotional changes you are trying to assimilate or understand. Remember that your intuition is famously accurate, so when you finally do get some quiet you will likely have a much clearer picture of how to proceed.
(7 of Wands Rev/ You’re Not Alone- Marion Black)