Do you remember the first time you saw a queer and felt some strange, new stirring? Maybe you were too young enough to know exactly why, but something in you raised its hand and alerted the rest of you: “Whatever that person is, that’s what I’m about.” Whether they were an androgynous celebrity or a butch trucker at your local diner, that person planted a seed for you to go seek out your people. And here you are now, out and proud, and part of those worlds you once longed to join. But do you feel like you belong? Because the thing about queer identities is we often feel like we’ve only just arrived, or can never stop arriving. Whether you’re still trying to figure out your relationship to gender presentation, to your own body, or to the group of folks you can loosely call your community, true belonging can feel elusive.
This month brings us two eclipses, and both tug on this longing to feel a sense of connection and belonging. The lunar eclipse on the 10th is in Leo—sign of performance, creativity, and vulnerable self-expression, and the solar eclipse on the 26th is in Pisces—sign of unconditional love and compassion. Eclipses are times when our ordinary lives are interrupted, when we’re asked to reckon with hidden desires and motivations, secrets long buried, and unexpected breakthroughs and revelations. The lunar eclipse in Leo, in particular, can trigger our sense of lack and longing for a certain kind of love. We may become more sensitive to what’s missing—most likely, a strong sense of self-love. This eclipse will be most powerful for folks with planets between 20 and 26 degrees of Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio, and Taurus. The Pisces eclipse on the 26th will most strongly influence folks with planets between 5 and 12 degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Gemini. This eclipse highlights our collective need to feel love not as a condition of our good behavior or special skills, but merely because we exist. Working with the energy of these eclipses means making room for some deep healing for your heart, and time set aside to nurture your creativity.
Eclipses can be a time for insights and revelations about who we are and what we want; expect your major relationships to adapt and adjust to whatever you learn in this time. Sometimes relationships end during eclipses; more often a particular pattern of behavior needs to end. If you’re feeling an intense need for change (or fear of change) during eclipse season, bear in mind that it’s wisest to make decisions after the eclipses have ended. As Leo asks us to know ourselves and love ourselves better, Pisces asks us to transcend ourselves and feel that, inherently, we belong on this earth and belong in our lives and our bodies. Fully arriving at either of these feelings can be a long journey, but this month asks us to begin this process of healing. We are the queers we’ve been looking for. We belong to each other, and to ourselves.
Good luck during the eclipses, and if you want a more focused look at how they’ll affect you and your relationships, holler for a reading. This is also the last month to claim a Discounted Reading for Comrades.
Aries
Your ruling planet Mars is strong as hell in Aries all month, helping you feel able and willing to take on the world. Venus in Aries adds to your impulsiveness and independence in love, which is only a problem if you’re acting like it’s you against the world. Otherwise, channel this bold energy into energizing and defending your relationships and help your sweethearts feel as brave and strong as you do on your best days. Watch out for some tension with anyone who wants to restrict or control you on the 26th; this month you are quicker to anger and to act, so build in a pause before doing anything reckless.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo stimulates your longing for romance and creative, playful connections. Get in touch with what makes your heart beat faster.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces highlights what you’ve been keeping secret from even yourself. Let your intuition guide you to some deeper truths.
Taurus
This month’s energy isn’t the easiest for you, dearest Taurus. With some tense aspects between planets in fixed signs (of which you are one), you might be feeling challenged by how much you get to decide and how much the world throws circumstances at you. Whatever obstacles may come your way, however, can be used for growth. You’re learning about your own desires and needs as you navigate what’s possible. Use this month’s experiences as seeds you can plant for a stronger sense of belonging—whether that’s in a chosen family, in a place, or in your own body and psyche.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo stimulates your longing for a stable home and supportive chosen family. Get in touch with your deepest desires and let them help you shape the future.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces highlights your highest hopes and ideals for humanity. Find a sense of purpose and direction for your desire for collective liberation.
Gemini
This is a month when you’re capable of a lot, but it won’t feel easy! Your power comes from speaking up and speaking out, especially from places where you feel vulnerable. Spend some time this month really appreciating the ways you’ve grown this year, and how you’re developing strength and resilience. Your creativity shines through your voice right now—let yourself be heard. Relationships that help you achieve what you’re here to do will be the best support right now, as you’re hella focused on your life’s purpose. Surround yourself with folks who are your best cheerleaders.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo stimulates your desire to express yourself through language. Find people who can help you reflect on and dissect your inner worlds together.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces highlights what you’re trying to become known for. Let your longing for a better world help you sense the shape you want to take in this one.
Cancer
This eclipse season brings you some much needed medicine. It’s time to get real about how your relationships can stabilize or destabilize you, and take steps to have firm footing under you whatever is happening in your romantic world. What is the most sustainable container for the energy that flows through you? How does what you believe about the world inform what you believe is possible, or what you deserve? Remember that certain risks are worth taking if it means you get to experience more of your own brilliance and purpose. Don’t be afraid of being more independent this month!
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo stimulates your longing for a stronger sense of your own value. How do you know when you’re done taking care of others? How do you help yourself feel nourished and safe?
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces highlights your adventurous nature and need to learn more about the wide world.
Leo
The main story of this month is love—particularly, the story of you falling back in love with yourself. The eclipse in your sign plants a seed for a new relationship to your own uniqueness, brilliance, and vulnerability. When you feel that gap between where you are and where you’d like to be, or between the love you’re receiving and the love you want—that’s where you can fill that space between what you have and what you lack with love. Love is what pulls you into your own center, your creativity, your desire to reach out from what is best and brightest in you. Be willing to transform right now. Be willing to shapeshift and experiment. Don’t be afraid of how you will look as you do it, or what folks will think. As you fall back in love with yourself, you’ll need to nurse some parts of you back to health—particularly any part of you that still feels blocked, betrayed, or abandoned. Use the tremendous surge of energy you’ll get this month (and this year!) to massage these knots out of our psyche.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo affects your core sense of self, asking you to redefine your visions and goals.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces highlights your sexual desires and the fears or inhibitions that may come with them. Explore what feels forbidden, but be gentle with anything that feels triggering.
Virgo
This month brings major changes to your inner world, which may not be as obvious on the outside. You’re reconnecting with your dream life, your fantasies, and particularly your sexual desires, which may have felt less important in recent months. In the first half of the month, stoke your creative and erotic fires by making regular time for solo fantasies—even if you have a partner. There are things you need to learn about what stirs you deeply that could get overshadowed by someone else’s desires. Let the second eclipse teach you more about how to balance your own desires and needs with someone else’s. What do you have to give, and what do you need in return? What makes it feel easy to commit to someone? Are you feeling deeply recognized and appreciated by the important folks in your life?
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo highlights what you’ve been keeping secret from even yourself—let your imagination run wild and don’t censor yourself.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces stimulates your longings for whatever commitment style suits you best. This influence will help you uncover your desires and fears around partnership.
Libra
Jupiter, planet of expansive growth and opportunities, is in your sign most of this year but turns retrograde on the 6th, making this month an especially good time to review and reassess where you’re headed. Why have you ended up where you are now? Where would you like to be in several years? Are your closest crew helping you move towards the life you want? Have you given up too much to keep the people you love happy? With your ruling planet Venus in Aries, you’ll have energy and initiative to burn for reworking any relationship that has gotten stuck in bad patterns, and for reconnecting with what makes you excited—whether or not you share it with anyone else. Don’t be afrriad to shake things up if you’re not happy, but watch out for acting too impulsively.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo stimulates your desire to be part of a larger collective and recommit to bringing something beautiful to the world.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces highlights where you’ve fallen into power imbalances and may need to adjust how much energy you spend on others versus yourself.
Scorpio
This is a month of fireworks and spectacular events, which could be right up your alley—depending on how much energy you have to dive deep. Romance can run hot and strong, but so can feelings of competition and anxiety. Honor what’s raw and powerful and generative in your deepest connections right now, without getting too distracted from your core purpose this year—focusing on how to do what you love better. If things get too intense in any particular relationship, feel free to call a halt to processing and insist on quiet cuddling or taking a walk to look at the clouds. In other words, guard your emotional resources carefully right now and make sure you’re not being asked to hold space for too much. There are ways you need to soften into yourself this month, and ways you need to stay focused on your ambitions: your relationships are at their best when they support you in both of these efforts.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo stimulates your desire to shine at what you do best, and be recognized for your talents and skills. Cultivate connections with people who can help you achieve your full potential.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces highlights a desire for sweetness, tenderness, and romance. Whether you share this with an established partner, a new lover, or even just your closest friends, let this be a time of reconnection and recovery.
Sagittarius
You usually thrive on a sense of adventure, or at least the ability to always learn something new from what you experience with your partners. Stability, for you, means never getting bored or trapped by love. This theme will be extra strong for you during this month’s eclipses, as you balance your desire to shoot yourself like an arrow toward a distant horizon and your need for some softly feathered nest to call home. You get to be complex; you get to have contradictory desires. Your best relationships will make room for both freedom and stability, for your wild streak and your secret homebody longings. Own these desires, and accept the tension that sometimes comes from being pulled in different directions, and this month will be an exciting and stimulating time. If you try to repress one of these desires, you’re likely to end up frustrated and disappointed.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo highlights your longing to explore and understand the larger world. Plan some kind of adventure that can help you feel more free.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces stimulates your longing for a safe and beautiful home, with deep connections to your chosen family. Do what you can to create and enjoy this refuge right now.
Capricorn
This won’t be the calmest month, but it can be a time when you learn what you need know to make better choices in the future. In this light, take whatever conflicts arise right now as good information for what you need to change to have an easier time in all you relationships. Some of these changes may be quite minor, others might involve serious attention and strategizing over the next few months. Trust that as long as you’re acting with honesty and integrity, you’ll be able to creatively approach obstacles in your core connections. Proceed in good faith, with a sense of humor and a lot of compassion for yourself and everyone else—we all need reminders that we’re worth the work.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo highlights how sexual energy can help you heal from past trauma. Spend some time loving up on yourself and enjoying your fantasies. Go gently into areas that might be triggering, but do explore what feels taboo.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces stimulates your longings for clear communication, understanding, and connection with a variety of people.
Aquarius
With the Sun and Mercury in your sign this month, you’ll feel more in touch with what makes you you—and maybe a little more self-conscious about what it means to be you. This is a time of lots of mental activity, decision-making, and future planning. Don’t get too caught up in the need to know everything already: the eclipses this month will highlight what you need from other people, and that so much of what happens in your heart is still mysterious to you. Make room for surprises, don’t overplan your days, and spend focused time with your closest people—whoever helps you open up and warm up. The Leo eclipse could have you doubting your ways of approaching love, or longing for a kind of belonging that always feels out of reach. Learn what you can from this feeling, but remember that you already do belong with us.
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo stimulates your longings for whatever commitment style suits you best. This influence will help you uncover your desires and fears around partnership.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces highlights your value system: How do you value yourself? How do you feel valued by others? How do you act on your values?
Pisces
This month marks a major turning point for you. The eclipse in your sign on the 26th marks the last of six that have happened since 2015; the next eclipses in Pisces won’t be for another seven years. These last two years marked a decided shift in how you see yourself and how you decide what relationships are right for you. As the influence of this last eclipse wanes, you’ll be able to find new stability and growth in the directions you’ve chosen. For now, though, you’re still learning the last lessons of this cycle: What does it mean to love yourself first? Who are you when no one else needs something from you? How can you disconnect without feeling isolated? How can you find the beauty, love, and joy you need to thrive whether or not you’re in a romantic partnership?
On the 10th, the Lunar Eclipse in Leo highlights where you’ve fallen into power imbalances and may need to adjust how much energy you spend on others versus yourself.
On the 26th, the Solar Eclipse in Pisces affects your core sense of self, asking you to redefine your visions and goals.
Thank you for this! I’m planning a retreat with friends for the Pisces eclipse weekend, and it’s great to have more info about where everyone might be at.
Thank you, I needed this today. <3 I'm newly out and just moved to a new city, so that feeling of not belonging has been a little overwhelming. Trying to be brave this month and find opportunities to make friends & build community.
I feel you! It’s hard! You’re not alone x
Thank you! <3 I'm taking it one social event at a time so it doesn't seem so daunting.
Good luck Katrina. Hope you feel “at home” soon and are very happy in your new chosen city. x
I love that you’re offering discounted readings related to fighting oppression! I just signed up!
“Do you remember the first time you saw a queer and felt some strange, new stirring? Maybe you were too young enough to know exactly why, but something in you raised its hand and alerted the rest of you: “Whatever that person is, that’s what I’m about.” Whether they were an androgynous celebrity or a butch trucker at your local diner, that person planted a seed for you to go seek out your people. And here you are now, out and proud, and part of those worlds you once longed to join. But do you feel like you belong? Because the thing about queer identities is we often feel like we’ve only just arrived, or can never stop arriving.”
This!!!!!! Went right to my soul. Perfectly written.
“If you’re feeling an intense need for change (or fear of change) during eclipse season, bear in mind that it’s wisest to make decisions after the eclipses have ended.”
I know it’s not the eclipse yet, but, having always been single, I have been feeling an INTENSE longing to be in a relationship recently. Like, crying my eyes out, why-doesn’t-anybody-love-me-that-way intense. It’s good to have something remind me to try to be calm about that.
I’m an Aries sun, but for the most part I feel much more closely aligned with Pisces (rising) and Aquarius (moon). So this month’s Aries horoscope had me all, nope! nope! nope! But then I read for Pisces and Aquarius and was all, YES IT ME! Any thoughts on that? From everything I’ve read it’s like, your sign sign is how you are deep down and your rising is how people see you – but in my experience it’s the complete opposite. I never feel like an Aries, but I see how others might because of how I am on the surface. Does that make sense?
Eternally grateful for your horoscopes every months. You nail it every time and everything makes sense. One day when I have more money I’ll get a reading from you :) digging the resistance discount though! I’ve def been wanting to do more stuff with activism and community so I’ll have to look into that!
SCORPIO “If things get too intense in any particular relationship, feel free to call a halt” NEVER! “Intense” is our middle name… :)
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS. I’ve had this tab open in Chrome ever since it was posted because mine (Pisces) is SO ACCURATE and SO HOPEFUL that I just want to reread it over and over and over again. It is the perfect continuation of all the self-reflection I’ve already been doing and I can’t wait to see what February holds for me.
Oh, thank you so much for this. I’m a Leo and your words were absolutely what I needed to hear right now and feel very applicable to the place I’m at in my life. Thank you for your insight! And I like the drawing of a crown too ;)