Notes and charts for Jan. 30, 2025 Starcast
About My Horoscopes
We are in strange and intense times — characterized mostly by chaos and deception. It’s fair to ask “why do we need astrology?” My best answer is that it’s a way to see patterns and make some sense out of not just strange events, but also to get a better look at your possibilities. I’m here to bring the world a little closer into your reach and take the edge off of the fear.
I see my role as an astrologer as providing reassurance, and also seeing what cannot be easily seen from our limited viewpoints. This is about working with archetypes, cycles and patterns, and it takes practice to see them. I’ve been writing my horoscope for nearly 30 years, starting in the spring of 1995 — my anniversary is May 1. In all, I’ve written about 2,000 of these columns, which means about 24,000 individual entries. And it’s still fun and exciting to do.
I stand in the tradition of the British horoscope column (and have written for the Mail and the Mirror, as well as the New York Daily News). I was called to the work in the early 1990s by Patric Walker, who demonstrated that astrology is real. Over the years I have developed my own approach. Each entry for each sign is a little world of its own. I challenge the standard notions of what the signs are about, defining them my own way (which I advance every year when writing the annual edition).
I use about 50 different planets, centaurs, asteroids, Pluto-like objects and special points, and weave the story of our lives from my understanding of the charts for the current week and the current season.
Here is the story of how I got into the work.
Aries (March 20-April 19) — Venus has entered your sign, and its contact with Pluto arrives with an opportunity to express some of what you’ve had difficulty saying recently. To express a difficult thought does not require staggering courage, only the willingness to be imprecise. Feelings do not match perfectly to words, so just be sincere. It’s OK to practice with someone who is not personally affected, and thus there is no threat. However, the real issue is how you treat yourself, and how you feel toward yourself. The matter of self-judgment comes up repeatedly in your astrology, and it’s clear that you’re working out something deep. Take the opportunity while you have it. In a time like this, a little therapy can go a long way. The key is talking to someone experienced who is distant from your situation.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You may be obsessed with the idea that you have to give something up to get what you want. Who knows, that may be true. However, you might try making a list of everything (including every situation) that you would be perfectly thrilled to be without, and consider that those are the things you have to let go of to make room for something better. You have a few weeks to make decisions, and you won’t have a clear sense of your actual desires, needs and drives until Mars turns to direct motion on Feb. 23. Therefore, do not assume that you know anything for sure. Proceed in a spirit of curiosity and sincere inquiry and you will notice how many blank spaces there are in your thought process; how many gaps you need to fill in; and all the places where you are plainly lacking actionable information.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — If you can set aside the idea that you must sacrifice something to have what you want, you may discover that it’s right within reach. Now, ‘sacrifice’ is a strange concept. Historically, it’s involved with killing something. That’s not what’s happening at the moment. This is about an exchange of some kind, which may be a burden or commitment you don’t really want. However, it’s more likely that you are poised to fully accept that responsibility and in the process, open up some unusual new potential. You have something important: a base of operations. You have experience. And there is a need that needs to be filled, which aligns with a vision — with your vision — and a quiet understanding that something that seems unlikely is not only possible but necessary. I know it’s a truism but some of them are indeed true: fortune favors the bold.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — The recent New Moon in Aquarius serves as a reminder to know who is in your life and why they are there. By that, I mean exactly who and exactly why. With Pluto now in this angle of your chart — the one that addresses collaboration and shared resources — you must guard your gate carefully. That means having a real understanding of who comes into your home or office; who is participating in your social media or other public accounts; and regulating the information you dispense with extreme care and a sense of purpose. Meanwhile, a diversity of factors are opening up your view of the future. The information will come through your intuition and have the sense of ‘second sight’. Like pattern recognition, you let this come to you rather than you going to it. However, it helps if you are receptive and look in the right direction: upward.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You may be getting mixed signals from a partner, or potentially from a group. Yet to understand what you’re observing, it’s necessary to see what you’re bringing to the situation. This could be in the form of expectations or projections, which means your idea of what life should be about. However, what you’re likely to be encountering is the first of many levels of rearrangement of the entire social order — for everyone and especially for you with concentrated and transformative Pluto now tracking your relationship zone. It would be wise to enter every situation, with each new day, letting go of your preconceptions. For the whole world these could use a thawing out, because outmoded concepts really have us on ice. It would be a happier world if people could get together and have sincere conversations. You’d be an excellent person to lead this effort.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — There comes a point where to have access to your inner resources, you must let go and let flow — and that moment has arrived. Getting in touch with your feelings and your ideas is not all sweetness and starlight. The difficult emotions and thoughts provide you with material to work with, whether in your spiritual practice, therapy or creative endeavors. You might note the places you don’t really want to go — and go there, even if a little. This does not include expressing any form of cruelty to yourself or others but rather being in communication with how you feel and what you want. There may be an overwhelming appeal to use alcohol as a creative or emotional lubricant. And it may work. Yet the wrinkle is that it could lead you to doubt the validity of what you’ve realized or created. You don’t need any extra.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Push has come to shove on a matter of whether you are doing something for its own sake, or doing it because you’ve made a promise that you must keep — and you’re not sure you want to. These are teaching moments. This particular intersection or stress point will pass; the question is what you learn and what you opt for in the future. Going from obligation to sincere commitment is a matter of practice. The most important thing you can do is recognize the juncture points when you get to them; you could take your discovery and set a new policy and establish a new basis for making decisions. This must be a fully conscious act of will, and in the meantime, you will accomplish a lot if you bring every drop of your creativity to your situation now.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — If you can create some quiet moments for yourself, and feel the silence when you find yourself there, you may have some unusually deep moments of peace. There is nothing grand or glorious about it; it’s sublime as the feeling of sunlight touching ice particles in the window glass. Do you know the kind of feeling I’m describing? When you look at one of your house plants taking in that same sunlight and realize that it’s as alive as you are, with its own distinct presence in the world? This is a receptive state of being. It’s not really ‘active’ in the sense that you have to do anything other than notice what you’re feeling. Moments like this contain intuitive information, as they are very close to the essential intelligence of nature and consciousness. There is something good for you here.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You don’t need to be a genius, or to think of yourself as one. You’ll thrive as a curious human being involved in the life of your community. That’s all you need. Curious means open-minded; that implies a friendly approach to the unknown. However, the trouble with this approach is that it takes work. You may start as mentally available, and then you would have to verify what comes in and declares itself true. It’s therefore easier to block new information, though this leads to another risk: that of arbitrarily choosing what you want to be true. You may not see it that way, but how would you know? Figuring things out is worth the work, and then there is the necessary step of verifying your findings. But living any other way than this is the equivalent of living at the back of a digital cave.
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Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Once you start to figure out how much of the ego’s belief system is based on the idea of sacrifice, it can be really annoying. However, the keystone seems to be this idea of what you must give up, perhaps in exchange for the hope of some modest gains. It is this that your psyche is trying to escape from right now. Encrypted in the idea of sacrifice is giving up life itself. Yet this does not happen all at once; it happens in degrees, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. It is a state of mind, and the reflection of a priority system that devalues your life and places the emphasis on something that doesn’t really have a name. Here is the best tool I can offer to sort this out: notice when your decisions are based on guilt. That’s the time to stop, pause and reassess.
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Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Be bold about who you are and what you want. And if you’re in a relationship, be bold about who your partner is and what they want. The two are related, and anything that qualifies as a love affair requires both being steadfastly yourself, and generosity of spirit. I know, such a relationship would be the stuff of legend. And maybe you’d rather be alone. Yet you do relate to others (whatever the context) and I am suggesting that comes with two parts: be real, and advocate for others. You might ask where getting your needs met fits into this description. There is little you can do about that except notice whether it’s happening, and choose to be where you feel good. You cannot ask another person to “meet your needs.” That is ridiculous. They do, or they don’t.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You have a different value on sex than most other people. In my reading of the Pisces psychic structure, it’s an important form of spiritual contact with yourself, with others and with the universe. For most people sex is halfway between a casino and a sewer, but this has never worked for you — and it never will. Yet to live this value as real and sincere requires discipline. You must be contained in yourself, and make your sexual choices based on what you know is right for you, and what you understand others to be ready for. Yes, you are the one who must determine both of those things. And then there is the matter of identifying those who hold a similar value as you do. Here, you’re likely to find that there are slim pickins’. Therefore, practicing patience and insisting on sincerity matter. They would have done wonders in the past, and will do so in the future.
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