January Horoscope by Mariya Kurbatova

Sup pups? Hope you're living life and staying warm, over here we're coping with horses... or horoscope-ing as it might be called...Want more of Mariya? Read her intro interview here. 

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“In 1938, The Miami Daily News encouraged female readers to keep resolutions small and manageable, warning against ‘glittering resolutions which you know in your heart are as brittle as Christmas tree ornaments, wedding vows, or campaign promises.’”

Do you guys like New Year’s Resolutions? I do. I make them every year. It makes me feel refreshed & inspired. Though this year, I’ve seen a lot of sentiments float in the ether (Instagram) that maybe we shouldn’t be doing all that. That the middle of the winter is a terrible time to try to bloom. (The astrological new year doesn’t start until March, just btw…) 

I used to work for a book-selling app, mostly in self-help books. I’d have to comb the internet for mentions of particular titles. So I read a lot of short self-helpy aphorisms from these books taken out of context on Twitter (never calling it “X” , sorry). An ever-green title in this world is James Clear’s “Atomic Habits.” The book’s based on this premise: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

In the context of the self-help book premise, this means that if you want to excel at playing trumpet, for example, you can’t just have that goal — you gotta have a system for achieving that goal. But let’s take that quote out of context. I think we in the US know by now our systems are broken. We know how this impedes our goals. Maybe you’ve always wanted a baby, but childcare costs and a gutted school system have stopped you. Maybe you want to eat healthier but live in a town without a grocery store. Maybe you want to read more but are too tired after shifts. And that’s just personal goals. That’s not even diving into the goals of whole communities that are arrested by our creaky, ineffective systems. 

So it’s hard not to despair. It’s hard not to give up. Every book and movie and substack article these days is like: apocalypse, dystopia, sad bad world end. Every conversation I have includes some mention of The Evil State of the World. 

This January though, I want us to work with our imaginations. I want us to imagine a way out. And I want us to do so collectively. For this month, I’ve compiled some exercises to strengthen your imagination. These exercises are best done in company with others. To encourage collaboration, I’ve found messages for two signs at a time. Find yourself an astrological partner and discuss. 

Sagittarius & Taurus

This month, I want you to think about food. What is your personal relationship to it? Who and what influenced this relationship? Do you tend to eat alone or with others? Why? Is that how you’d prefer it to be? If not, what’s standing in your way? When you consider where your lack of nourishment comes from, it’s best to examine your thinking from the very basics.

Virgo & Aquarius

This month, I want you to think about romance, in whatever state it appears in within your life. If you have a partner, what differentiates that connection from the others in your life? How does your partner relate to your social circle? If you are single, or are uninterested in romance in its current standard form, I want you to think about how romance still permeates your daily movements. Romance is, after all, not something limited to couples -- it is a connection to life itself, a desire to taste beauty in a sunset, a still-ringing note, a blue jay’s feather discovered on the concrete. How can we cultivate it on the community level?

Leo & Gemini

This month, I want you to think about transportation. How do you move between places? How much time does this movement take out of your day? Does your daily movement bring you in close (perhaps too close) contact with others, like jostling bus riders, or into isolation, like hour-long solo car highway commutes? How does this movement shape the rhythms of your life and the lives of those closest to you? Are these rhythms grating to you? What would a different sort of music and movement look like? 

Scorpio & Aries

This month, I want you to think about animals, the ones you live in closest contact with. Perhaps these are pets. Perhaps these are pests. Perhaps these are livestock or co-workers (working dogs, working horses). Perhaps these are the birds and squirrels and bugs whizzing past your kitchen window. What do you notice about these creatures? Are the rhythms of your life centered around them, or do you seldom even stop to notice them? Examine your relationship to the non-humans closest to you, and see what that can teach you about your approach to life more broadly. 

Capricorn & Cancer

This month, I want you to think about technology. What is your relationship to so-called progress? Do you adopt new products and ideas with reckless optimism, skeptical caution, pragmatism, or not at all? How much of your thinking is outsourced? How many of the conversations you have are two people parroting opinions read online back and forth? What technologies are you reliant on beyond the phone and the computer, and are there alternative tools to be used? How would the rhythm of your life change if these tools changed?

Pisces & Libra

This month, I want you to think about clothing. How do you decide what you wear? What are the economic considerations? Societal pressures? Effects of subgroups and dominant trends? Do you know the history of your garments, or are your clothes delivered in anonymous boxes by anonymous hands? Do you see clothes as an extension of self, or just a formality? What do the clothes of people around you look like, and who are the people that have no clothes? As climactic patterns change, so will our garments. Consider how you and your community’s clothes might look ten, twenty years from now.