It’s February, and weird is the only way through — here’s what the stars have in store this month

Welcome to February, my babies.

Following the sun and death daddy Pluto, Mercury, Mars, and Venus will all make their way into Aquarius this month.

On February 9, a new moon in the sign of the water bearer asks us to raise our freak flags and gonzo fists high, to the skies above and the powers that be.

Aquarius reminds us we can only get to a better tomorrow through radical authenticity — and by fighting to protect and promote the living truth of others.

Chinese New Year begins on February 10, ushering in the era of the Wood Dragon.

Pisces season softens hearts and edges when it wades in on February 18, followed by the high shine of the full Snow Moon in Virgo on February 24th.

The word February comes from the term for Roman rites of purification known as Februa. In the days of yore and within the Roman calendar, February was the final month of the year; a season concerned with death and endings, clarity and closure, honoring the ancestors, and making sacrifices to Terminus, the god of boundaries.

Apropos of this, Aquarius, the sign that rules the bulk of February is itself a boundary. Ruled by two planets, it rides the line between constraint (Saturn) and chaos (Uranus), the established and the inspired.

In this way we can begin to view purification rites for their true intent — to empty and to invite.

May your visions be crystal and your cup runneth over. Read for your sun and rising sign.

ARIES (March 21 – April 19)

The dense concentration of Aquarius energy this month activates your realm of friends and community, Aries. You never struggle to assert yourself but you may find true connection harder to come by.

I encourage you to be open to people you may have previously overlooked or with whom you share little in common. In the words of Anaïs Nin, “Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

Here’s to gestating the unexpected.

TAURUS (April 20 – May 20)

Aquarius season shines a spotlight on your tenth house of aspiration and achievement Taurus. The tenth house represents perception and the stories you write about yourself that will echo after your inevitable ending. You are a diligent worker but the time is nigh to become a die-hard dreamer.

With Jupiter, planet of magnification and magnificence, hanging out in your sign until the end of May, you have luck on your side and nothing to lose but the dangerous belief that you deserve less. Go big, expect more and for godsakes, make your life a must-read — if not a bestseller.

GEMINI (May 21 – June 20)

The sun and a mess of other planets in fixed, fellow air sign Aquarius are asking you to throw open the windows of your mind, to seek the edges and the long way home, Gemini.

If a trip isn’t on your agenda or feasible for your finances, may I suggest a dip into fantasy?

As Lebo Grand writes, “Sensuality is what happens when you break free from the real world.”

I hope you find yourself far out and endlessly turned on.

CANCER (June 21 – July 22)

Ready or not (probably not), ’tis the season of release for you, my Cancer babies. The sun in Aquarius casts its discerning rays on your basement realm of shadows, secrets and unsavory attachments.

The eighth house is dark business indeed, but it is also the last gasp/grasp before the breath of dawn. As Norwegian explorer and polymath Fridtjof Nansen decreed, “I demolish my bridges behind me…then there is no choice but to move forward.”

Let the bridges burn and the pages turn.

LEO (July 23 – August 22)

This month, the water bearer pours his avant-grade energy into your house of partnerships, Leo. New dynamics are not only available but necessary for you as you’re being asked to consider how your relationships radiate/reverberate into the world at large.

Apropos for you as the sign of the solar plexus I bring you a lesson from Alan Cohen, “The word courage comes from the French word ‘coeur’, which means heart. True power proceeds not from force, but from love.”

May you make it, may you find it, may it feed you.

VIRGO (August 23 – September 22)

Aquarius tapdances in your sixth house of habits, rituals, and service, Virgo.

Whether or not this workhouse becomes a grindhouse is entirely up to you. Where do you push yourself, where do you punish yourself and what are you trying to prove?

The sixth house is also the house of the body; health as wealth. I beseech you to treat your body as something you serve rather than a machine that serves you, and to see your life as a steady walk to and from a state of grace.

Delegate, detach, and remember that ease is a sign of efficiency.

LIBRA (September 23 – October 22)

Love is in the air (signs). The sun in Aquarius activates your fifth house of pleasure and the pursuit of play, Libra. And when Venus slides into the water bearer’s domain on February 16, you are primed to receive and reciprocate.

I encourage you to think of love not as a fixed star but as a kind of current.

As Robert James Waller writes, “To the universe, four days is no different than four billion light years.”

Be it a brief affair, a flash in the pan, an afternoon delight, or the edge of forever, give yourself permission to be humbled, heartened and carried away.

SCORPIO (October 23 – November 21)

Aquarius season activates your realm of ancestors, apron strings, and core values, Scorpio.

The objective, future-focused, ‘feelings as concept’ energy of the water bearer allows you to walk on these waters rather than feel their undertow.

As a parable, I offer the walking palm. A tree indigenous to Central and South America, the walking palm grows new roots in the direction it seeks to grow, letting the old roots die.

Remember Scorpio, it’s never too late to seek what you need and raise yourself in every sense.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 – December 21)

Aquarius season floods your third house of communication, Sagittarius, including short jaunts, currency and conversation.

This month, I urge you to consider the dialogue born from silence, from reading, and from actively refusing to engage in small talk.

Burn the script, the easy anecdotes, the topic and the trivial — see how you might guide the briefest, simplest exchange towards the memorable and the sublime.

CAPRICORN (December 22 – January 19)

The sun in Aquarius illuminates your second house of resources, Capricorn. The second house is concerned with wealth and our true definition of richness.

In “Sacred Economics,” Charles Eisenstein advocates for the gift economy, as it “represents a shift from consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, scarcity to abundance and isolation to community.”

I dare you to consider that in equations of both love and wealth, giving is the only means of getting.

AQUARIUS (January 20 – February 18)

Happy return of the sun to you, Aquarius! The iconography of your sign is traditionally read as two waves of water but we can also see these squiggles as twin currents of electricity.

As a sign ruled by Saturn and Uranus, your role is to ground yourself, take the flash of inspiration/upheaval (Uranus), and conduct it (Saturn) in service of the highest good of your fellow man.

A tall order to be sure, but one you are singularly suited for — ride that goddamn lightning straight into tin foil utopia you strange, glorious creature.

PISCES (February 19 – March 20)

Happy pre-birthday to you, Pisces. Before the revelry comes the reckoning of the sun in your twelfth house of the subconscious mind.

Here, in the last gasp of the zodiac wheel, we can see the totality of our past. Traditionally known as the house of self-undoing, I suggest for you, in this confluence of Aquarius energy, that the twelfth house can become the home of unlearning, of pattern breaking.

I leave you with a poem and a prayer from Emmanuella Raphaelle:

“I am still learning. To unlearn.
The story of happily ever after.
The narrative of Love hurts.
The belief of sex means love.
That their infidelity is my casualty.
I’m still learning. To unlearn.
What people gave me as love.”

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.