Horoscopes for Aquarius 2023

’Tis true she rides me and I long for grass.
’Tis so, I am an ass, else it could never be
But I should know her as well as she knows me.

• Dromio of Syracuse in Shakespeare’s
  The Comedy of Errors II.ii.172-5

The Sun enters the tropical zodiac sign of Aquarius on Jan 20, 2023 at 2:31 AM (local).

• New Moon January 21, 2023 1° Aquarius.
• Full Moon February 5, 2023 17° Aquarius/Leo.
• Mercury enters Aquarius February 12, 2023.

The Sun enters the tropical zodiac sign of Pisces on February 18, 2023 at 4:36 PM (local).

• New Moon 1° Pisces February 20, 2023.
• Venus enters Pisces February 21, 2023.

Horoscopes for Aquarius 2023

Aquarius

For good, or for ill, I read a lot of Science Fiction when I was growing up. This is the material that helped my mind, possibly shaped my thinking, and provides a backdrop for much of my belief systems. There’s the inherent understanding — me, I arrived at this through reading a metric ton of this stuff — but there’s an inherent belief that mankind is essentially good at its core, and good will prevail. Even in the most dystopia-like of the novels? There is always a shred of hope. There is always some threads of a story about how we will all survive, work together, and come up with answers to help us get through this together. That’s a simple enough example of what provided much of the underpinning to what I believe, as much as anything, gods, country, politics, and states aside, it was what I was reading. These days, it’s different, and these days in Aquarius, what we need to consider what are the roots. Where we’re from tells us much about where we will be going. There was a narrow, maybe a dozen years, time in my life when I spent an inordinate amount of time in book stores. For years, I carted a large library of paperback goodies, relics from that time, and those are the roots. Alas, I don’t have many of the books, not anymore, and what I do have is a carefully shelved. Most of what I read back then, I’ve got in digital form, too, at least the classics, and I can re-read them, as need be. This is a period time, about Aquarius, and about what we all use to feed our mind. Never hurts to go back over material you’ve previously covered, one more time, to see if there are new ideas in the old materials, besides, digging through Aquarius classics might hold some gems. Give it whirl — and happy birthday.

Pisces

When there really was a “Fourth Estate?” Add me as a member to that vaunted and exalted circle, although as an astrology columnist, not so much, but yeah, as a former member of the “the media?” There was a time when a carefully worded, well-pointed criticism could effect change. These days, even a sharply-worded online-review can cause ripples. Or not. There’s a fine line between general bitching and complaining, and offering constructive criticism. Part of this is how the words are held together. Part of this is overall tone. Part of this is a poor Pisces stuck in between two places, the proverbial thorny “horns of a dilemma,” and neither horn is comfortable as a place to sit. That’s part of the Pisces problem. In different times, a carefully constructed, well-thought out critique, a careful enumeration of the challenges, obstacles, and then, a similar list of possible solutions as a remedy? Yeah, in different times, that would work. But these are indifferent times, and the problems facing Pisces are not easily rendered into a sound-bite solutions. With no snappy comeback?

The problems are real, and the solutions, and there are many solutions as you will see shortly, the solutions do not start with a long list of complaints. Here, simply put? Bitching about it, and not doing anything, doesn’t solve the problem. The second notion? This might not be the best time to pursue a long list of complaints against whatever it is? While I like the artful discourse of ideas, that long list of complaints, and it can be traced back to your Pisces self — that litany of perceived injustices? Just make you looks petty and fragile. No Pisces is petty, not in the grand scheme of life. Resist the urge to act that way, but also feel free to contact me to point out grammatical or factual errors.

Aries

One prays fervently to the god of his or her choosing, and one prays that certain events come to pass. Win the lottery, find Mr (or Mrs) Right, find the magical elixir, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, something. I prefer the odd gods of the galaxy, and I prefer astrology to other systems, but only because it works for me. The stars incline but do not dictate. Jupiter is good, and good to Aries, but Jupiter also requires more than prayer. Think that’s the operative expression, “Jupiter requires more than prayer.” Some kind of action, be that symbolic, direct, or even indirect — action. Take Aries action. Prayer is useful, but prayer isn’t the final answer; prayer is just one of several tools we all need. A simple step towards that stated, Aries goal, a simple gesture towards arriving at what it is that one wants? Yes, it’s a good idea to pray about it, and pray for the best of outcomes, and hope, wish, dream. All of that is good. All of that is helpful. However, taking action, either in a symbolic manner like filling in the form for the paperwork, or opening a can of paint to start, anything like that is good. I just recall, as well, that some of the best answers to prayers? Unanswered prayers. “I kept wishing for that, and now, I’m so grateful I didn’t get my wish.” I always have an addendum to my footnotes, no this one is about how you should be worried that old country and western songs start to describe aspects of the Life of Aries — and that’s a constant worry.

Taurus

A Triumph Spitfire was an idealized car, for me. A dream car, in some parlance. It was a two-seater, drop-top Classic British Marque, with a swooped, sexy, coke-bottle shape, and in its final form, a peppy 1500 cc inline four, coupled with an optional overdrive tranny? I’m unsure of its top-end, doubt it would be much over a ton (100 MPH), and the model is no big winner on any motor course, but it looks like fun. However, as an obsession, I started plotting what I needed. I saw one for sale, locally, and super-cheap, not much more than a grand. But I would have to rent a trailer, get bubba to tow it over to a rented storage place, and then, do a complete tear down. The more I looked into it, the worse it got, from having to have a second bay to strip and rebuild the motor itself, then retro-fitting the “plumbing,” new gas and brake lines, replacing all the worn parts, new seat upholstery, fresh canvas top, and even then, the car would only be useful in the spring and fall. With the top down, sure, fun, but also lacking any kind of more modern safety equipment, and small enough to be run over by bubba’s truck? Then, the most frequent commute is to and from Austin or the coast, and a few minutes of that trip would be fun, but after 15 minutes of “Wind in the hair,” plus the highway grit and dirt? No longer amusing. While fun in corners and dodging traffic, not really a useful vehicle for me. Cool looking, in my mind, but the project started to fall apart before it ever got started because the amount of work doesn’t favorably compare to the end-product usage. I mean, it would be cool, and I could use it to go fish this spring, maybe once or twice, but not next summer. After the last cold front here, yeah, not really interested in a drafty car with intermittent heat, either. Think it all the way through, Taurus, think it all the way through, and consider our shared love of creature comforts.

Gemini

Winter time? Gets to a point, I’m like an old Ford truck — in the morning I got to warm up before I can go forward. Crank the motor over, let it idle and chug for a few moments, don’t even think about putting me into gear, not yet. I have to pause, take my bearings, get oriented, and then, I can start to move forward. But like I suggested, and for Gemini this is an important kind of distinction, like an older car, or the aforementioned old Ford truck, got to let us idle a minute. Have to take our time. This is not a situation where you can just jump in and go. Can’t just motor off from a cold start. Can’t jump and land on your Gemini feet. Yes, I realize that usually a good Gemini can, indeed, leap while building a set wings to land with. With the relative motions of the stars above? There’s a hint that this is a time when the normal fast-action Gemini reflexes aren’t necessarily the best way to move forward. Give it a chance to get warmed up. We get a cold snap, down here in south Texas, and the weather is brutal, for about three days. During that time? I try not to do much more than stay warm. Bones creak, so it feels like, and the fingers are are numb to most manner of activity. Takes me a while to get warmed up. Like me, like the cold snap, this Aquarius time presents us with a situation where it takes a little longer to get up and to get out, a little longer to get going, and as a good Gemini, you are well-served to take our relative lethargy and inertia into account. Let us warm up before we get into gear.

Cancer

Negative thoughts, old memories that drift up from the nether world of the subconscious? Those thoughts taint our day-to-day existence. The problem I face, as these meandering and occasional vicious memories emerge? That can send me down into a spiral of negative emotion with no answers and nothing but a sense of dread that something like that will happen again. The rampant Aquarius energy, followed closely by Pisces? That creates a whirling vortex full of energy, and it can be used one of two ways: negative or positive. It’s a simple choice. Think: binary decision. Negative thoughts seem to exert a more profound and gravitational effect than the positive ones, but during this time, next few weeks? Squelch, or drown, those negative patterns as they start to emerge. In the land of the Moon Children, the Cancer portion of a chart? There is no time for getting sucked into that whirling vortex of negative notions. Think: this is binary. “If only I’d done that different, then…” But you didn’t, and now is the time to move on with no more dwelling in your past.

The Leo

Let’s just make this easy. Think that’s the cue for my majestic Leo friends, “Let’s just make this easy.” There’s a commentary in the night’s sky, and that tries to add extra labor, extra energy, extra choices, which, in turn, complicate even the simplest of tasks. Therefore? Make it easy. Make it simple. Make it straightforward. Or, in other words? Don’t needlessly complicate the answer. Some solutions are just the quickest, easiest, shortest route from point A to point B, which, under careful examination? “Point A is where this month starts, and “point B” is where The Leo wants to arrive, at the end of the Aquarius times, and how to get there from here? Simplest, most direct route. “That’s your answer, just ‘yes’?” Yes. “Don’t want to add anything else?” Nope. “So the best way to do this is just go straight?” Yes. “No curves, no long-winded excuses, no colorful language that is — essentially — meaningless?” Right. Looking back the imagined dialogue doesn’t work as well as the imagined dialogue in my own head, with a long, and somewhat tiresome display of back and forth banter that looks suspiciously like badgering. No one wants to badger The Leo, and, the other side of that statement? No one wants to be badgered by The Leo (Leo badgering is better than regular badgering, though.) No badgering. Just the quickest, simplest, most direct answer. The shortest route. Sometimes, just a straightforward “Yes,” or “no” works best.

Don’t needlessly complicate the answer.

Virgo

There’s an old self-help mantra that I’ve employed over the years, useful as a starting point. “If you could change one aspect of you life, what would it be? The terms I’m fishing for? Goals like “Lose weight,” or “make more money,” and “finish that screenplay?” Those are obvious jumping off points, and the only blockage is the person him or herself. It makes for an easy question to elucidate a launching spot, places targets, sets goals, and selects a potential destination. Clearly a Socratic methodology. It’s worked, frequently, as a systematic way to dig out what the client wants. The obvious follow up is to get started on that goal, taking steps to achieve the target by surmounting the obstacle — lofty rhetoric yet remarkably effective. Where this goes horribly awry? “I wish I was taller.” Wear high heels? Plot a Virgo course to change what you can, but getting taller? “There are those ankle weights and then hang from a bar suspended across a door transom?” You can try but I’d suggest sticking to plans with concrete and verifiable results. What’s your Virgo wish — that can be fulfilled?

Libra

Reading light-hearted abstract on one of Shakespeare’s plays, I came across a reminder of the Elizabethan notion that “class” was something one was born with. The more noble a person’s birth, the more “class” that person would have. I can’t say that I’ve found that to be true, though, as I’ve encountered modern people of apparent noble birth who are mere villains. Sometimes, not even good crooks, at that. Then there are those of Shakespeare’s “low birth” who display a certain kind of class, and the way it worked, back then? The essence of a person’s “class,” as in a “That’s a class act,” or “she’s really got class?” Shakespeare would often have a high-born (good breeding) person pretending to be low born, only to have the manners and that “class” give it away. As we’ve all seen, in our modern era, money can buy an education, but that same wealth can’t buy empathy, a central ingredient to “class.” In the coming month, it’s imperative for my little Libra friends to judge based on actions and mannerisms, and not to judge based on words, promises, and what might be. Noble carriage is not about what one is born into, but more about what one is born with, and then, in true egalitarian Libra fashion? Make judgements based on action, deeds, not words and promises. Weigh one against the other, a kind of politeness is more cost-efficient, too.

Scorpio

“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” I can give various sources for that quote, or quotes that are near facsimiles, but that’s not my goal, and that’s not what Scorpio should concentrate upon for this time period (Pisces). While the Sun is in Aquarius, and with Mars still unwinding itself in Gemini? This suggests that mighty little Scorpio needs to dig back and look where we’ve been in order to plot a course forward. There is an echo, a reverb, might be a digital effect, might be a simple analog device with built-in redundancy, but the way the sounds bounces back? It’s got a message and Scorpio? We’ve seen this before. The past is how we plot our forward motions. Buried in that past, buried in that Scorpio personal history? There’s a mistake, a misunderstanding, a misplaced comment, or even just a slight misstep. Maybe a miscue? That same scenario plays out again, in this next few weeks. May not be identical, but the players, the positions, the understanding, and here we are, in 2023? Scorpio: it’s a chance to do the right thing. You blew it before, think it through, you know what do — do better — this time around.

Sagittarius

Time to try out new catch phrases. The run-up to the holidays, that should be a good time to test. Catch phrases vary from person to person. I originally gained a reputation for quoting, and mis-quoting, Shakespeare’s works, and at that? I was largely quoting obscure, less well-known plays. Kind of my thing. Been at this for years, and I don’t see it stopping now. However, that’s merely an example. That’s me, as a Sagittarius, testing material. See what sticks. See what rolls off the tongue. See what others like, grab onto, then parrot back to us. That’s a successful phrase. However, this is a few weeks wherein the testing of new phrases, a new jingle, a lick, a lyric, a poetical moment, or just a catchy turn of the phrase? That’s what we’re looking for. Condense a mountain of material into a few simple words. Sometimes this is slang. Sometimes, this rhymes. Other times, it’s just a bouncy phrase that catches our Sagittarius ears. Individually the combinations differ. But what is important, an area we all need to concentrate our Sagittarius largesse? We’re looking for a catchy, new jingle. Phrase? Short quote, pithy expression of who, and what, we are.

Capricorn

While I get credited with a great number of innovations, and providing respite in one’s life? Largely, this is not my goal or direction. However, as Aquarius begins, and begins to unfold, there’s a growing and pervasive sense of calm that should start to spread through Capricorn. One guy in the back of the room snickers, “Yeah, sure, ‘Calm before the storm,’ be more like it.” I can’t stop your innate Capricorn sense of dread, but I can allay some of those voices of doom. This is a time of reckoning, for other signs. This is a time of upheaval — again — for other signs. This is time unrest and loud, frequently incorrect discourse, for other signs. This doesn’t apply to Capricorn, except for that creeping sense of doom, and “Oh, no good will come of this.” Personally, I would think there is some good, around the corner. Personally, I would think that there was a shot at some growth, some sanity, and some degree of equilibrium, soon, if not now. The price of this sense of justice? Shut up, sit down, and don’t volunteer. “But it’s my duty as a human on this planet to help!” Yeah, and this next mission? Might want to sit this one out. Let someone who is better equipped take on the challenges. Like me? You work best in a supervisory role — for now. Or? Like me? I’ll just watch. They’re better at it than us. No pain means no pain.