Queer Horoscopes for January 2019: Being Each Other’s Calm Through the Chaos

Happy New Year!

As we say goodbye to 2018, let’s take a moment to acknowledge what we’re sending off. Last year’s core theme was “Raise your hand if you’d like to dramatically change your relationships!” Except you didn’t even need to raise your hand. We had not one but three wake-up calls last year, each asking us to examine dynamics we usually take for granted: 1) the eclipses in Leo and Aquarius challenged our sense of belonging — and how authentically we show ourselves to others, 2) Jupiter in Scorpio brought extra motivation toward diving into the depths and uncovering old wounds, and 3) Venus retrograde gave us six weeks to reflect on our relationship patterns, reconnect with old friends and lovers, and tie up loose ends.

Thankfully, 2019 will be a calmer year — at least for our relationships. The world may still be chaos, but we’ll be in a better position to understand and support each other. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve learned a lot about love in the last year. You understand better than you ever have what kinds of conflict increase intimacy and what kinds shut it down. You know that all relationships change, and that these changes don’t need to destabilize you. You’re learning how to love yourself well enough that you don’t project your insecurities all over your friends and partners, blocking your ability to really receive the love they have for you. Continuing that learning process is one of the core themes of 2019, as the eclipses move to Cancer and Capricorn. Eclipses help us see what is hidden, so they often correlate with surprises and changes — the Cancer-Capricorn axis is about security and integrity. Our relationship lessons this year focus less on whether we even get to be loved, and more on what we do to protect our vulnerability and how to make that love last. If you’re someone who tends to expect little from love and would rather remain self-sufficient and emotionally guarded, prepare for experiences of more vulnerability and open-heartedness. If you’re someone who feels everything deeply and often gets lost in relationships and crushes, prepare to pull back and re-center yourself in your own ambitions and integrity.

Meanwhile, Jupiter — gay cheerleader of the cosmos — has moved from Scorpio (“Yay, therapy! Rah! Rah! Rah! Trauma, trauma, let’s explore it!”) to Sagittarius (“Another world is possible! We are the ones we’ve waited for!”) and will stay there till early December. In moving from Scorpio to Sagittarius, we’re moving from a time of intense focus on healing to a time of optimistic, energetic lack of focus. Sagittarius wants us to live many lives, to find connections between many worlds, to bring a sense of faith to projects that others might cynically reject. This buoyant energy helps boost our vitality as we come back to life, having done the deeper healing of last year. It may also scatter our energy, so be sure to stay anchored in what matters to you.

Finally, the biggest shift this year is the planet Uranus moving into Taurus. Uranus is the queer revolutionary of our planetary system — whatever Uranus touches gets queered, subverted, questioned, repurposed, and often completely broken down in order to make room for something more fabulous. Taurus is the sign of peaceful sensuality — back rubs, walks in the woods, gardening, rustic farmhouse decor, butch woolen pants and femme vintage furs. As Uranus moves into the slow and steady sign, we’re going to experience some kind of revolution in how we relate to our physical worlds and what it means to have abundance and pleasure. Taurus is a sign that hates change, but change is on the menu. Working with this energy, which begins in March (we had a taste of it last year, but Uranus is now moving into Taurus to stay for seven years) means being open to new desires and new pleasures. This isn’t just the capitalist model of substituting your favorite LaCroix flavor for a different one, though. Uranian changes is about getting more free — personally and collectively. As we experience Uranus in Taurus, we’re asking ourselves: how can I be truer to my desires in ways that support my liberation and collective liberation? Luckily, we don’t need to know the answers yet. We’ll be living into them for the next seven years.

I’m back from vacation this month and excited to give you all personalized readings about the themes of 2019 in your own life! I’m also still offering Astrograms, custom portraits of your birth chart AND your relationships. Thanks to all of you who bought them in the holiday season!

As always, for these horoscopes read your Venus and Moon signs first, followed by your Sun and rising. Use these for what they can give you, and discard anything you don’t need. Happy new year! May all our relationships help transform us and our culture this year!

Aries

After a tumultuous 2018, this year offers you better support for being the badass you always want to be. You’ll be less prone to nagging self-doubts, less confused about your direction in life. With a stronger sense of inner alignment, you’ll be able to access your most courageous and spirited self for the adventures that are in store for you. Last year’s energy mostly focused on internal healing work; this year is asking you to spread your wings and fly. Relationally, this may mean needing a little more space and freedom from routines and responsibilities that have been draining you. It might also mean that you finally have energy to show up for those routines and responsibilities that you know you want. Above all, this is a year for exploration, discovery, and learning more about how you affect the larger world you’re part of. If you’re in a position to seek out new romances, this is the year to do it — ideally with people you don’t already know and see everyday. If not, use that energy to connect platonically with people who inspire you. Shake off the dust of 2018 and let yourself explore!

Major Themes for 2019: Renewed energy and vitality. Stronger sense of self. High spirits. Freely choosing your path. Showing up for what brings you joy. Letting it be an adventure.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Don’t get trapped thinking you know all there is to know. Risk being transformed by a new adventure.


Taurus

In so many ways this year will be less challenging for you than last year, but don’t get too comfortable in whatever routine you’ve established. Come March, Uranus is setting up camp in your sign (for the next seven years) and will bring unpredictable energies to the forefront. Taurus strengths include creating a sense of stability, beauty, and abundance for themselves and others. They are the sign the rest of the zodiac turns to when they’re freaking out and need to be reminded why it’s good to be alive. The biggest weakness of Taurus, though, is a tendency to hold on to something that is no longer life-giving, merely because anything familiar helps Taurus feel safe and happy. When they manage to finally wrench themselves away from bad habits, or out of unhealthy relationships, jobs, or homes, they are able to find new sources of contentment without much trouble — it’s the wrenching away itself that can feel almost impossible. This is where Uranus swoops in to help. Rather than seeing this energy as something about to wrestle you down and steal your favorite security objects (or people), think instead about cultivating a garden. You’ve planted your favorite plants, and every plot is full. Now Uranus arises as a weed, poking up here and there and asking you to examine what it is, what it’s offering, and if maybe what you thought was a weed is actually something rare and beautiful that you really need in your life — which will mean clearing some space for it, and pruning down some of the other plants. It will take patience and openness to change to accept these gifts, but this is your assignment over the next several years: let your garden transform.

Major Themes for 2019: Letting old patterns compost. Finding beauty in the unexpected. Letting your routines transform — slowly and intentionally. Patiently pursuing radical change. Finding new sources of pleasure and comfort. Actively pruning what is no longer giving you life.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Remember that you haven’t yet experienced everything. Be a curious gardener.


Gemini

Get ready, little whirlwind; 2019 is here and it’s time to step into a brand new kind of partnership. What was good enough in 2018 isn’t going to cut it anymore. This doesn’t mean you have to break up with everyone — in fact, what you’re learning right now is how surprising and enriching relationships can become when you stick with them through the strangeness and confusion. Patterns can change; people don’t have to be expendable. Maybe you have too many people you’re trying to track, though? You have a tendency to spread yourself thin in your search for sparks of excitement, understanding, perspective, wisdom. You may end up exhausted merely thinking of the long list of people you haven’t checked in on recently, or ashamed of how much time you spend with people who don’t add much to your life. Social media may be your best/worst friend. This year is here to help you focus, prioritize, and make some real choices about who you value and how you want to show it.

Major Themes for 2019: Choosing partnership, with all that entails. Stabilizing. Finding center. Finding your values. Understanding what you love. Understanding how to cooperate without losing yourself. Setting boundaries that help you stay connected to what matters (and not just what’s in your news feed).
Your Relationship Resolutions: Celebrate that you get to experience a life full of wonder and surprises; commit to sharing your life deeply with those who know how to love you best.


Cancer

Oh, tender little water-dweller, this year begins a process of beautiful growth for you. Any planet in Cancer is deeply in touch with how it feels. In our culture this is often felt as a weakness, but it’s really a strength. You’re already on the path to knowing yourself better than many — which means you’ve got a better idea of what you really want. Those that are sealed off to pain are also sealed off to pleasure and meaning. This year will definitely include some growing pains, but part of what you’re learning is that pain and suffering aren’t the same thing. You can be in intense pain as you lift weights and love it. You can feel less pain when you bruise yourself on a sharp corner and hate it. As the eclipses move into your sign this year, you’ll be open to new ways of looking at vulnerability, pain, and self-protection. You may find that you want to be less defended, or to have more flexibility in how and when you protect your vulnerability. Above all, you’ll be learning how to stop defending yourself so rigidly that you get stuck — or being so open that you feel like a raw nerve all the time. This year ushers in a process of maturation in which you’ll start noticing what risks and what level of pain or discomfort you’re up for in the process of growing into your full strength. Think of the endorphins and sense of accomplishment in store for you as you complete these challenges! And, like anyone who puts in the hard work, you’ll be building emotional muscles. The stronger those are, the easier it all gets.

Major Themes for 2019: Transformation. Issues of protection and defense. New forms of resilience allowing more open and honest self-expression. Moving toward your most caring adult self. Maturity as flexibility, not rigidity. Finding balance.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Self-love means self-knowledge. Learn what it means to care for your growth, with appropriate support and challenges.


Leo

The last two years have challenged you to step into your power more, and you’ve learned that whenever you do so you’ll make waves. At times, the intensity and frequency of changes has been overwhelming, but you’re just about out of the woods. After one last hurrah on January 21st, the eclipses will move out of your sign and a period of significant relationship upheaval will be over. You may find yourself greeting 2019 with a sense of wariness, exhaustion, or deep grief, but your mood should shift soon. As you embrace a stronger sense of self, and a clearer idea of what it means to fully show up in and inhabit your body, you’ll find all the thrills and risks inherent in no longer apologizing for who you are. This is also a time when you can show up as your best self fairly consistently, as you’re getting an extra push toward self-expression and authentic forms of flirtation (as in, being charming merely because you’re having so much fun being you — not because you’re trying too hard to make a good impression). Welcome a year of reconnecting to what brings you joy. Welcome a year of fully inhabiting your body and sense of self. Welcome whomever this year brings into your life to see you and adore you as you are.

Major Themes for 2019: Resting after a big push. Noticing how you’ve grown. Knowing yourself and loving yourself better than ever. Being seen and loved better than ever. Fully showing up for the ride.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Drop the act and connect from you heart. Risk loving deeply.


Virgo

Settle in, sweetie, cause 2019 is asking you to get hella cozy. I know it’s wild out there, and it can be even wilder when you stop and slow down and look inward. Some of you may be doing all you can right now to avoid stopping, slowing down and looking inward (raising my own hand right now). But the biggest theme of 2019 for you is that it’s time to send all your analytical, devotional, organizational, problem-solving energy toward your own inner life and the people and places who help you build a home. The biggest payoff this year will come from dedicating yourself to creating the softest nest for yourself and others, to deepening your roots, falling in love with the birds and trees where you live, and establishing a sense of continuity and belonging in your world, even if your life takes you far from home or through many homes in the course of the year. As you do this work, you’ll find old family stories are ripe for healing. Be the one who changes things in your generation for future generations. And make sure you have plenty of warm blankets and a kettle of tea at the end of the day. You are sending your roots deep into the earth right now — appreciate the trust this takes, the energy it takes, and also that in doing so you’ll be finding new sources of connection and nourishment.

Major Themes for 2019: Rooting. Nesting. Nurturing. Healing family wounds. Creating a new sense of family. Going inwards, getting quiet. Finding home.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Slow down. Tend to your home, your chosen family, and the bonds that create a sense of belonging.


Libra

Last year has given you plenty to think and talk about, and this is the year when you’ll be actively engaged in making sense of what’s been coming up for you. Even introverts may find themselves more sociable under this influence, or at the very least may write a little more prolifically in their journals. The Venus retrograde period that closed out 2018 was especially important for you. You’re starting this year with more opportunities for clarity than you’ve had in some time. Some relationship decisions may feel clearer than ever before; some may still be unclear, but you’ve got a better sense of how to make decisions as you get more information. Trust your gut. Trust what you’ve learned from doing it the wrong way (i.e., the way that now gives you a headache or heartache when you try to imagine doing that again), and know that you can let your body be your compass moving forward. Say yes to what makes you feel open and engaged. Say no to what closes you down. So no to anything that isn’t a clear yes, and then check in again later. This year will be so full of contacts, communication, and activity that it’s best to set a clear intention now about what your goals are so you don’t lose them in all the hubbub.

Major Themes for 2019: Clarity. Connection. Conversation. Extroversion. Learning your truth. Sharing your ideas. Translating your body’s messages. Understanding inner alignment and what needs to get expressed.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Find the words that will help you understand and heal your relationships. Let there also be times you don’t need to speak.


Scorpio

This year brings a major boost to your self-confidence, and lends a general air of maybe things not being totally wrecked all around you, either. If you’re like most Scorpios, you may be a little suspicious of anything that appears calm and friendly — you’re more comfortable when you can see the ways a situation can be messy or dangerous. One potentially difficult facet of 2019, for you, will be its emphasis on building a sense of safety and stability. What does that mean for you? You’re invited to live into that question this year, opening up to experiences of joy through sensuality, familiarity, and the feeling that maybe there is enough for you and for those you love. Meanwhile, expect some interesting new currents to run through your romantic life in March. Uranus moving into Taurus opposes your sign and highlights your curiosity about bringing new forms of Taurean energy into your life — think of anything you like to do in your body that brings you pleasure without tension or pain. Think about the people in your life who help you feel that way, too. Keep an open mind about what might feel good, and don’t judge yourself for anything you discover.

Major Themes for 2019: Finding contentment, nourishment, and stability. Loving yourself as a work in progress. Learning to let your guard down when keeping it up is unnecessary. Finding a new relationship to pleasure. Embracing consistent experiences of hey-everything-isn’t-total-shit-this-is-actually-pretty-nice.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Remember that pain isn’t your only teacher. Risk opening up to happiness and pleasure.


Sagittarius

The personal power and magnetism you have this year is a little like a winning lottery ticket — you can invest it wisely, waste it unwisely, or forget you even have it and never cash in on it. As Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, moves through your sign for most of the year, you’re getting a huge boost of optimism, energy, and opportunities. If there’s something you’ve been thinking about but needed the courage, resources, or momentum to make real, this is your year. Take the right risks this year and you’ll find your sense of self expanded and renewed. It’s a beautiful time to reinvent yourself or advance your progress along a path you’ve wanted to pursue. Relationally, you’re coming into a deeper sense of alignment with what feels true for you and where your own interests lead you. Let this vitality and freedom help you explore what’s possible. Just watch out for overdoing it under this influence, as you may feel too optimistic to know when you’re out of steam.

Major Themes for 2019: Optimism. Renewal. Hunger for new experiences. Love as adventure. Finding yourself by wandering. Realignment with your core values and desires.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Choose the love that gives you freedom to grow. Keep sharing what you learn as you learn it.


Capricorn

While 2019 is an astrologically calmer year than the past two have been, you’re still in a process of deep transformation. Saturn, planet of rolling up your sleeves and attacking the various messes in your life (self-made or inherited from others), is continuing its stroll through your sign. Whatever else is going on, you’re still deep in a learning process. You’ve got some heightened sensitivity this year, so don’t ignore the information that comes to you in ways you might discount (dreams, hunches, gut feelings). In this year of slow and steady building of strength, there’s also a few elements of big change on the horizon. First, with the eclipses moving into the Capricorn-Cancer polarity, this year begins a new cycle of hidden information rising to the surface. For you, this will especially affect your sense of how you show up as fully yourself while in partnership. Anything you or a partner have been keeping hidden may come up in surprising ways this year, so be prepared to learn and incorporate new information. For most of us, what’s been hidden is just the stuff we all have a hard time accepting about ourselves — not anything maliciously kept from a partner. Keep that in mind this year, and pay attention not only to the new information itself, but to the circumstances that kept it hidden for so long. Above all, notice the ways your own heart wants to connect and reveal itself to others. Let yourself be a little more vulnerable than you have before.

Major Themes for 2019: Being open to change and new truths in your relationships. Paying attention to cause and effect. Loving your strength and resilience while opening up to more vulnerability. Working hard at what matters most, and asking for witnessing and help when you need them. Staying connected to what’s real—not prepping for worst-case-scenario, but being present with what is.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Be gentle to yourself as you learn new ways of loving. Begin by loving yourself exactly as you are now, even as you watch yourself transform.


Aquarius

Say goodbye to two years of “Wait, what just happened?” and “Where did that come from?” in your important relationships. As the eclipses have moved on to a different pair of signs, you’re facing a year that promises far more stability than either 2018 or 2017. Eclipses reveal what’s hidden, and you’ve learned a lot over the last two years. Now you have plenty of material to help you decide what’s really good for you, and how to connect to someone in a way that makes both your lives better, that could even make the world better! That may sound a little grandiose, but this is a year of thinking about how you impact the groups you’re part of. In fact, you’ve got a special gift this year for getting involved in social groups, collectives, and movements that can help transform the world.

Major Themes for 2019: Rebuilding with fresh eyes. Incorporating new truths into relationship patterns. Seeking out new collective projects. Showing up for your ideals. Showing up for your networks. Letting love be something that transforms your world. Raising us all up a little higher.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Trust that you are part of something vast and beautiful and that you get to inhabit the center of your own life. Feel how the energy you put out into the world ripples farther than you might expect.


Pisces

Sweet little fish, this is a year for you to shine like some majestic leaping dolphin with the sun bouncing in rainbow prisms off your skin. Your biggest dragon to slay this year will be your own shyness, self-doubt, and tendency to prefer the company of forest creatures and daydreams and long baths to that of your fellow humans. If you’ve got a healthy dose of diva along with your Piscean dreaminess, you’re poised for a year when the spotlight is on you and the audience is ready to be impressed. This can be especially exciting if you’re looking for new love, as there’s a strong push toward expressing yourself more playfully and authentically this year. And for those of you who are decidedly not on the diva path or looking to attract new boos, this year still offers you a spotlight for what is most important to you. Expect fear of failure to come up this year, as what you’re hoping to achieve is ambitious. Don’t let those fears block you, though!

Major Themes for 2019: Playfulness, creativity, and adventure. Aiming high. Being a total rockstar. Finding new love, or falling back in love with yourself. Daring yourself to be truly seen.
Your Relationship Resolutions: Keep showing up as you are; trust that you will be loved as is.

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Corina Dross

Corina Dross is an astrologer, artist, and writer who spends as much time as possible in libraries or under trees. They offer astrological consultations, intuitive guidance, and creative coaching to clients worldwide. Corina is also one-half of a sibling art collaboration, Abacus Corvus. You can learn about their current work and offerings at www.flaxandgold.com.

Corina has written 106 articles for us.

17 Comments

  1. Wow, these are always so spot on! Capricorn is so true for me and the flux I am in right now, thank you! ♥

  2. Corina, I DIED at this paragraph, which is possibly my favorite way Jupiter has ever been described?

    “Meanwhile, Jupiter — gay cheerleader of the cosmos — has moved from Scorpio (“Yay, therapy! Rah! Rah! Rah! Trauma, trauma, let’s explore it!”) to Sagittarius (“Another world is possible! We are the ones we’ve waited for!”) and will stay there till early December.”

    Your horoscopes are always some of the most empathetic, tender, and simultaneously challenging ones I read. I really, really love them, and these were gorgeous. Thank you!

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  4. How is it that the Autostraddle horoscope is the only one I’ve ever read that seems to be speaking directly to me, every time.

    As a newly-single Piscean currently embarking on a bit of a poly kinky fuck-rampage starting now-ish, this feels very timely!

  5. Right in the heart, every tiiiiiime.

    Thank you, Corina. Your horoscopes are always excellent and extremely thorough.

  6. As always, I am grateful that my moon & Venus are the same, and my sun & rising are the same. Not that I don’t love reading your writing, but my Sag Moon/Venus/Mercury ass cannot sit still!

  7. “In so many ways this year will be less challenging for you than last year”
    God I hope so.
    I’m fine with new types of challenges, just not the 2018 kind.

  8. just walked home from my sister’s new house – literally a few blocks away from my apartment, in the historic center of the town where we both grew up – where i was helping her and her husband unpack all their stuff to dive into the horoscope for my venus sign, and find it’s all about “putting down roots”

    wild

    wild wild wild

    • the sentence structure of my comment is really confusing & i’m disappointed in myself but basically: ur horoscope was creepily spot on in a wider familial sense

  9. This hit me so hard:

    “Staying connected to what’s real—not prepping for worst-case-scenario, but being present with what is.”

  10. “Your biggest dragon to slay this year will be your own shyness, self-doubt, and tendency to prefer the company of forest creatures and daydreams and long baths to that of your fellow humans.”

    …as someone who chose to spend new years eve doing a visualization in a candlelit bath in company of a dream-lynx I feel supported/attacked.

  11. Gay cheerleader of the cosmos, guess I found my new desired position for future job applications.

  12. Holy fuck, as a Leo Moon/Venus and Libra Sun/Rising, these have never hit more close to home. THANKS!

  13. I feel these horoscopes, particularly when it comes to career stuff. I’m finally doing what I’ve been dreaming of doing for damn near a decade and giving my time to things that I truly believe will help heal and replenish the Earth

    But I’m also coming up on six years single. It feels painfully tender to read “be open to new romantic adventures.” I have been. I am. But what do I do with that energy when no one I’m interested in is open? It hurts

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