Horoscopes: Winter 2018

Gif by Ian Campbell

Aries

No one could blame you if you feel at loose ends heading into 2019, Aries - this year hit you with things you couldn’t have seen coming, that changed the way you think of yourself and what’s important to you. Last year’s resolutions feel like a lifetime ago, but you were made for new beginnings- always creating them - and your inclination towards action will do you well in the coming months. You’re at your best adapting to a new way of being and all the challenges and pitfalls that come along with it. Despite what others would have you believe, blind determination can get you pretty far, especially when you feel entitled to the absurdity of your desires. You’re coming into the next year with a goal in mind; remember that whatever you strain towards is what becomes important.

Taurus

You had a bumpy ride this year, Taurus - it feels like a lot of the relationships you were taking as a given this time last year have changed irrevocably. People left it up to you to draw the line on how much you would put up with, maybe glossing over the part where they take accountability for their actions in the process Asking yourself what you’re okay with - and honouring it - might still be a challenge, but you’ve also dropped a lot of inhibitions, leaving room for bigger, more expansive goals and ideals. These next few weeks are great for releasing anything that obscures your ability to get to the heart of a matter, all the fluff that obscures the true intentions of others - or even your own. If you can achieve some clarity in the way you express yourself, you’ll find it easier to tune into the people around you and move towards the experiences you’ve discovered you really want.

Gemini

Feeling restless comes with the end of the year for a lot of people - the weather is cloistering, the sun is in recluse, and the weight of the year behind you is just beginning to lift. You didn’t have the easiest one either, and it’s not surprising if you’re questioning everything from your job to your educational aspirations. You’re looking at the whole picture heading into 2019, trying to pin down your broadest, most ambitious motivations and desires. I say pin them down because they are there already - if you feel like leaving, you have a place in mind to go, whether you know it yet or not. Maintaining a healthy burning interest in what’s coming means you can build towards something new instead of just away from what isn’t working. The best way to take power back from the people or circumstances that left you smarting is to always move towards your way of being in the world, even if it looks selfish at the start.

Cancer

Winter frequently feels meditative; with all the dark in the sky, the moon’s influence becomes as visible as your it already feels for you year-round. With this and Jupiter weighing in at the winter solstice, you feel you’re looking for something, and are unusually willing to push your boundaries to find it. Naturally drawn towards tenderness, beloved objects, rituals and sentiment, you need to evaluate whether the structures around you - notions of family, chosen or otherwise, daily habits and routines, social circle - are letting you find honesty and release or stifling your truest expression of yourself. Stepping out of familiar territory is more jarring for you than for most, but you manifest growth through strife like no one else.

Leo

This year you went through so much; out of disappointment and strife come new relationships, stronger but always with their own sets of challenges. You realized you can’t go without problems, but you can choose the problems you want to have and your persistence in this effort knows no bounds. In the coming weeks, you’ll be taking responsibility for the structure of your life in new ways, watching the seeds you sprouted over the summer grow towards completion and accomplishment, and finding a new way of being in the world as you move towards the sun. You are becoming more comfortable establishing and respecting boundaries and working within a framework - getting better at distinguishing honest nuance from the willfully obscured. Work with this clarity, and you’ll find yourself in a position where you can see the extension of your life into the future in a way that feels more real and immediate than ever.

Virgo

Tweaking things is in your nature, Virgo. People think of you as overbearingly detail-oriented but sometimes they forget that your familiarity with the inner workings of things makes you a great teacher. When you learn something new - which is often - you want to share it with others, bring them into the fold of your new knowledge to improve their lives and also so you can watch what they do with it, where they go. You ask the questions other people don’t think to, and this attitude - using what you have to look elsewhere for guidance or reflection, seeking collaborations – is what’s going to carry you through the coming year. This is your path to personal stability: not to question your choices so much as what you believe their consequences are. Interrogate how what’s hurt you has changed the way you think about yourself. You can always bring your methods into the future, even if the way you feel changes all too regularly.

Libra

You faced a lot of change this year, Libra - the stars aligned to bring you the opportunity to make big leaps under favourable conditions, or just the chance to see things from enough of a distance to get out of your own way. You have a drive that keeps you moving forward, seeing yourself through hard months with what looks like even grace, if only from an outside perspective. But now, coming out of the turbulence of 2018 and into a fresh start, it’s understandable that your circumstances look less than certain, even if you feel more stable yourself. As you dive into what is at once most pleasurable and challenging, strive to remember the lessons you’ve learned and the goals you set once, what feels like a lifetime ago. What’s immediate is compelling, but you’re on some kind of journey - and even one with an indeterminate outcome deserves due respect.

Scorpio

The way you think about your personal relationships has shifted lately, Scorpio. Whether you let someone in or kicked them to the curb (both excellent exercises, especially because you tend one way or the other), your concept of what it looks like to have other people in your life is changing, probably for the better. Your environment is different in a way that leaves you feeling dreamy, disconnected, and maybe dealing with things more in your head than actually exploring this new terrain. Live in your world! You have a new direction coming, one that will begin to focus in the coming weeks as your sense of what is primary, what is valuable, returns. You have a better idea of what is or is not worth your mental energy now - but what deserves your action, your investment? Where do you need to persevere, and which of your patterns can you, finally, be comfortable saying no to? These lessons are valuable, and if you’re anything, you’re good at learning them.

Sagittarius

If you were ever looking for permission, this is it. You, more than any other sign, learn viscerally, through experience, and Jupiter returning to its home in your sign brings nothing but good fortune in this respect. The experiences coming your way will allow you to truly indulge in whatever has your attention and emerge transformed. From the outside it might even look like you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage but the next year bodes well for ambitious travel, for coming to your own system of ethics (a great project for you, Sag, sometimes too careless) and for establishing beliefs and gestures that will tide you through whatever comes well after. Now is the time to lean into your optimism, because it’s more well-founded than ever: even purportedly irresponsible choices will, as you already know, bring you the most rare fruit of what is challenging and confusing and hard.

Capricorn

You’re a reasonable, organized, and knowledgeable sign (if a hard-headed one) - and probably hear a lot about it too - but you also have another asset people sometimes overlook: you’re not afraid to ask questions. This isn’t a quality that’s limited to your studies or your work either, but extends to yourself; although you aren’t known as the most reflective or emotional sign, you’ve done a lot of looking to your past these last few months, especially where your family is concerned. While you’re prone to the relentless pursuit of a goal, you’re not entirely focused on the future - the new meanings you find as you walk backwards through your life give you a better picture of where came from, where you’re headed, and what you value in those you find beside you along the way. The process doesn’t feel great all the time, but whatever challenges you encounter only show you more of the path towards what’s rewarding and valuable. This kind of knowledge may be quiet, but its truth is no less real.

Aquarius

Aquarius, you’ve spent a lot of this year thinking - reflecting, changing, trying to better yourself and move towards where you envision yourself. Sometimes it looks like one insurmountable issue is in the way, and sometimes it’s a stiflingly long list of minor flaws. Your next obstacle certainly could be one thing manifesting a myriad of ways, but your job isn’t to figure out which is more real. Instead of looking for a root cause, one essential failing you need to bear the burden of fixing, continue to adapt - this journey might not have an end, but can you ever really count on one? You can be motivated to change without the impossible task of rectifying or atoning for anything, I promise. Move towards the good that has earned your belief.

Pisces

You feel some turmoil lately, Pisces - you’re itching to disrupt the status quo. What will you do with all these new desires? You take everything seriously, even if you’re known to be dreamy and unattached, because you find value and meaning in all of it - but that doesn’t mean you can’t have introduce some reservations about what’s valuable or meaningful to you. It’s hard to let go of the things you care about the make room to pursue new desires until you remember that what comforts and excites you can be as changeable as your emotions, and that change is not the same as loss. You’ll always be able to find the old in what is new, especially if you recognize new situations as extensions of what came before. Look for what you recognize instead of reacting with aversion to what first appears as only a stark difference.