...why read your horoscope?
some history, comparisons, and my personal frame of reference for writing astrological forecasts
the astrological forecast form
I write weekly astrological forecasts now and have done so, on and off, for a few years. Because I write in this form, I study it regularly through reading, analysis, and discussion with varying intensity. (Though, I’ll admit, I don’t think my execution of “the form” is conventional.)
In any given week I am listening / reading between 5 and 20 forecasts or horoscopes from astrologers I admire or find interesting in some way. And let me tell you… hardly any of these astrologers mention the same things about what is happening in the current sky.
This past week, my forecast for the week of June 29 - July 6 focused on the Venus-Uranus conjunction and Mercury in Leo, which to me felt like a nudge to be bold, be brave in this culminating energy. It’s not uncommon for me to lean into the potential for creative expression.
In the same week, Jessica Lanyadoo in her weekly horoscope podcast Ghost of a Podcast spoke on this moment of instability, emotional and nervous system activation, and she spent a lot of time talking through the Mercury - Pluto opposition and how this often looks like survival instincts being triggered and possibly kicking off a power struggle in our lives, or as a collective. Out of all of the weekly horoscopes in the world, I appreciate Lanyadoo’s urgent call for supporting our nervous systems in moments of high octane conflict.
And, also, this week Dana Solara (Self Help Witch) called attention to this week as being one with eerily fewer transits than what we’ve seen this year so far. She encouraged her readers to “take a breath” which also felt like good guidance for me (and everyone?) knowing that next week is the beginning of Uranus in Gemini — a transit that might be a shock to our systems, depending on our personal astrological make up.
Just in these three examples: very different tones and messages. All the same data.
history of the horoscope (almanac… forecast…)
Writing forecasts and horoscopes is an intuitive practice that calls upon the practitioner’s constellation of imagery, world view, emotional state, and ability to interpret data into meaningful instruction. Going waaaaaay back to the beginning of astrology, we see that astrology and astronomy were combined into an omen tracking system that was meant to support the survival of our species. And, look!, we’ve survived.
Over millennia, astrology and astronomy split off from one another and, coinciding with other trends in human civilization, astrology developed further into a meaning-making system for the personal, psychological, political, and interpersonal.
Still, farmers rely on the Almanac’s predictions for the health of their business. And astrological patterns, especially those of the outer planets, can give us anticipatory support as we look down the path of time toward global conflict, economic instability, and a whole slew of widely reaching phenomena.
But it’s on this personal level that horoscopes and forecasts I am speaking of right now that is interesting me.
Why even read them if week after week, all of these forecasts seem to contradict one another?
Or, why read a horoscope when you have already designed what you want to achieve or claim in the next week?
Here’s what I believe to be true:
The energy of the collective acts like a mood — palpable, but intangible. Still, felt by us all even if we’re trying to push through the mood with our personal will.
Our individual will is strong. But the collective, planetary energy is often stronger. Like how a rainy, gloomy day makes it that much harder to have a sunny disposition. You can do it! But it may take a whole bunch of coffee and money lol.
After years of personally tracking and checking planetary transits, I see how closely the mood of my own self’s energy, the mood of the collective, and where the planets are in the sky are so closely correlated. So, when I say the mood of the collective, I feel confident that the planets make the map for us.
Personally: I trend toward exhaustion and burnout just as intensely as I trend toward ambitious planning and seeking possibility. Since I started leaning into following the good advice of forecasts, I have avoided intense spells of exhaustion and have been able to curb over-ambitious project planning.
Horoscopes connect us to each other and claim that our interconnectedness is a strength we can rely on.
Planning meetings for when a planet is making a cute connection to another planet is fun.
Okay, so, if you’ve read this far, maybe you’re into reading forecasts.
Maybe you use them to plan your week or month ahead.
Maybe you look really far ahead and avoid planning a big event during a Mars Retrograde.
Maybe you also read a handful of different astrologers’ forecasts each week.
What I want to share in this post is my frame of reference, so you can decide if my interpretative work aligns with your personal values.
Because point of view and personal values absolutely informs how I write about the energy of the weeks ahead.
I am neurodivergent — I love how my brain works and acknowledge that the mindful tending to my body and mind is of my top priorities, otherwise I am prone to mental exhaustion, scattered decision making, etc. etc. My neurodivergence, when well supported, looks like creative interpretation and curious-heartedness.
My nature is to stay in the mind and neglect the body. It’s my goal to be in my body as often as I can, and to develop a habit of finding pleasure in tending to this body that carries me through this life.
I am queer — it’s important to me that my interpretations make room for all ways of requesting, expressing, and exploring love and intimacy. And my queerness feels to me this desire to both define and develop the garden of my unique expression of selfhood, which I hope to always have access to with habits of gut-checking, deep listening, and at-the-roots acceptance of all facets of my being, though many of them contradict each other.
I am sensitive to violence and seek to transmute violence into love. And, I start with the violence I enact on inner selves. I truly believe in the alchemical process, meaning I believe what is harmful can be shifted into what is beautiful with intention, patience, and trust.
I am an artist. And most of my creative projects are like long pilgrimages — I rarely know where I am going or why, but I feel the call to start the journey, trusting that what needs to be changed on the way will be changed.
From time to time, I mention wisdom traditions like Christian mysticism, Buddhist and yogic practices, or Taoist beliefs. Most of my life I’ve craved a devotion to one tradition—to go deeply in—but I am not committed to one “faith.” What I am committed to is resonance, and wisdom teachings supporting a more compassionate life. I am aware of how damaging some of these world faiths have been for some of us, and do my best to translate the wisdoms from these teachings in an accessible way. I avoid dogmatic logic for the logic’s sake.
I am here to make friends. Much of writing and astrological practice is hermit-like, and I love this, but I am motivated to do this because some of the most satisfying and exciting friendships of my life have come through these practices. I am always open to connection :)
I do my best to avoid “good” and “bad” evaluating comments, which so commonly plague our discourse. In my astrological interpretations, I aim to find possibility in difficult transits, and more nuanced ways to work with “positive” transits. I often phrase this as cautions or questions.
Thank you for reading <3 I write these forecasts for you, and for myself. It’s such a joy of mine to do so and to feel the depth of centeredness in the process.
