February Horoscopes and Astro Weather

Blessed Imbolc! We have reached one of the long observed and celebrated pagan cross-quarter days that mark the points between the Solstices and Equinoxes. This one is the first, and is the original first day of spring in the northern hemisphere.

Here at Imbolc (celtic for first-milk, as when the milk comes in for the early lambs and calves) the door creaks open to springtime. It is also the point where Persephone begins her journey out of the underworld from time spent with her husband Hades. It is here Demeter and Persephone are reunited, and the earth bursts into bloom in concert with Demeter's joy over her beloved daughter's return.

Imbolc is also called St Brigid's Day, the only early Pagan Celtic fire goddess to make the transition into saint. It's because she was soooo important to the Celtic people that the Christians had no choice but to embrace her and give her a role as saint.

February gets off to an electrical and fertile start, thanks to the

TAURUS MOON conjunct URANUS, sextile the watery NORTH NODE in CANCER.

There has been a lot of foundational, underworld type activity in the skies; the same in our lives.

Without exception, everyone seems to have spent the first month of the new decade in the trenches of hard work. The only variety has been what kind of hard work? There has been some movement away from the perceived Capricorn magnetic center of the universe, but the woven tap roots of KETU, JUPITER, PLUTO, and SATURN continue their tectonic march.

The wide-ranging mojo of MARS in SAGITTARIUS has been helpful, and his squares to NEPTUNE and VENUS in PISCES have added some whimsy and flights of fancy to what has otherwise been mostly drudgery.

VENUS is exalted in the mutable water sign of PISCES, meaning that our lady of love and pleasure, erotic and otherwise, finds it easy to express her essential nature through the filter of PISCES. PISCES has an innate kinship with all of life and can find playful ground with nearly anyone, thus the ease with which VENUS can be her loving, connective, self.

She is now separating from a conjunction to NEPTUNE, the planetary god of dreams, magic, mysticism, and spirituality and on towards ARIES, where she will make the ARIES ingress (the spring equinox point) early February 7, on the west coast. Here VENUS is the huntress, actively seeking her prey.

She immediately joins CHIRON, where she will be leading up to Valentine's Day, but thankfully moves on by the actual day of celebrated love, which is helpful considering that VENUS CHIRON aspects can be stressful to relationships.

From there, VENUS will active a square with the SOUTH NODE/KETU, asking us to look at what inappropriate defensive old ways we can let go of in our current relationships. Then she will ping off of JUPITER just as we wrap up our SUN in AQUARIUS time and move into PISCES, the last sign of the zodiac. These are all cardinal squares, which makes them extra activating, and although the rest is hard, this one to JUPE is nice, as the Great Benefic is beneficial even in a harsh square.

The harsher heads up come in the last week of February as VENUS applies to PLUTO and SATURN. Despite the overall sweetness of the PISCES time, this is a red-flag warning for relationships. Keep your wits about you as the fire here could burn.

The Full MOON happens on Saturday night, February 8, at 19 degrees LEO, with the only Ptolemaic lunar aspect being an applying trine to MARS in SAG, conjunct the Galactic Center. This is a light-hearted MOON, our first full, post the dramatic eclipse season that bookended the turn of the year.

Enjoy it. If you wish to do some lunar magic with this MOON, I recommend not using the night of, when the cup is so full that it can easily spill over and is not as effective as using the night before. The MOON will be in the heart/SUN ruled sign of LEO, so use it to speak your heart's desires for the coming year as we round the bend towards the final stop on the zodiac before renewal.

MERCURY, our planetary magician god of communication enters PISCES on February 3. MERCURY is all about orientation, and navigation. He revels in clarity and is home in GEMINI and VIRGO. He does not love being in PISCES as it is difficult to go about MERCURIAL tasks in the normal and efficient way when MERCURY passes through mutable water, in fact it is a signature that is reminiscent of MERCURY retrograde, where we are asked to surrender our normal, "point A to point B" ways of operating and surrender to a different, more creative sort of flow. This is in fact preparing for our next MERCURY retrograde, which kicks off in station form on Valentine's Day, while conjunct NEPTUNE. This is like chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup on top, covered in chocolate mousse. It doesn't get any more MERCURY retrograde than MERCURY in PISCES, conjunct NEPTUNE, stationing retrograde, Its so extreme that it is to be celebrated! There's no fighting this one, we all get to become mystical artists and poets of some sort, from MERCURY's ingress into PISCES in the 3rd, until he leaves the station retrograde degree on March 14, He will have moved back into the final degrees of AQUARIUS for the tail end of his retrograde time, but then he stations at 28 AQUARIUS and then on March 16, he GOES BACK INTO PISCES! Yay! Then he moves back into conjunction with NEPTUNE in early April and doesn't finally leave PISCES for ARIES until April 11.

I see this as much needed medicine. After how dry, cold, and dark all of this CAPRICORN SATURN PLUTO energy has been for over a year, this is the great softening of our outlook. PISCES knows we are all kin and that we are all in this together. Here is where we find empathy and connection.

Your monthly horoscopes for February

Read your ASCENDANT sign first,

then SUN sign second, if you were born during the day, Day Chart

and your MOON sign second, if you were born at night, Night Chart

ARIES/ARIES RISING

February is a big month for you in relationships. You will test and be tested. At the beginning of the month, you may be in contact with old heartaches, and there is some work to consciously do, not get pulled down into the blues. Shake it off by getting out into nature. Communication may feel difficult like you can't quite find the words, so try expressing yourself in some different ways. Poetry or music? Make a juicy playlist to say what you feel. It's a good month for creativity anyway, so this can jumpstart it. This Full MOON on February 8 lands in your house of pleasure and creativity, take advantage of it and make something beautiful for someone you love, but take heed of a Red-flag warning for relationships, in the last week of February as VENUS in your sign will square PLUTO and then SATURN. MARS enters CAPRICORN on February 16, which could easily activate hostilty in your workplace.

TAURUS/TAURUS RISING

The Rock n Rolling continues as the backdrop to your life until 2026, thanks to URANUS. Each month, the MOON comes around to join URANUS, bringing this message home: a progressive upgrade is needed. If you don't make the changes, they will happen anyway. This is the medicine of URANUS. The SUN moving through AQUARIUS until the last week of February, creates friction with TAURUS's attachment tendencies, echoing the primary agenda of URANUS. The Full MOON of February 8 is in your 4th house of home, literally the ground beneath your feet in your most private world. As it's Full in LEO, take the time to honor the hearth in your home, whatever form it takes: oven, wood stove, wall heater.. it still holds a central and primary role in our lives today, and our lives revolve around it.

GEMINI/GEMINI RISING

The Full MOON of February 8 takes place in your 3rd house of your regular stomping grounds. The MOON feels good in this environment, just a few degrees away from home. Enjoy the returning sunlight and get out and about to shake off the heaviness of winter and too much comfort food. Go for a walk in your neighborhood, looking for any early spring flowers. You may also be dreaming of a longer far off vacation across the sea, or it could be time to think about going back to school for a higher degree. Allow the exploration of either subject and see where it takes you.

CANCER/CANCER RISING

The past year has been so dynamic and intense and has asked so much of you. You've had to dig down into your deepest self and see what you are really made of. Good job! There may begin to be some glimmerings of some expansion and opportunity, in what has felt to be a a contract-a-thon. Partnership continues to be a field of stress and requires you to use all of your tools regularly. There will be a significant shift in tone in mid -March, but for now, keep your focus, and your sense of humor and make sure that you take regular time alone, use self-care to re-set. There is a strong focus on both money and career this month. You have a window around the Full MOON on the 8th, to say some money prayers, from your heart, not in a greedy way. Make offerings to the Great Spirit and then speak your petitions.

LEO/LEO RISING

February contains your annual Full MOON, enhancing your already stellar creativity, and asking for something new, out of you. Perhaps a big adventure, either for love, or with your love, or to a place you love. The more exotic and exciting and colorful, the better. If you can't make the journey, then learn about a new country, immerse yourself in it through movies, images, and books. Subtitles!

Your health benefits from daily tonic attention, to stay in balance and homeostasis. Good time to get your teeth cleaned for an extra dazzling smile.

VIRGO/VIRGO RISING

February may be a sexy month for you, activating the legendary naughty side of VIRGO. You don't need always to be buttoned up, so let loose and enjoy some. Your pleasure sector has been burdened with reality and responsibility for the last year, so take some good old sexy fun where you find it this month. The topic of partnership is up, but through a more poetic lens, and the Full MOON on February 8 is the annual MOON of spirit for you. This is an excellent time to go into a deep meditation, asking what the divine wants you to bring forth into the world as an act of service.

LIBRA/LIBRA RISING

How's the home front feeling, LIBRA? Are you ready to do a little early spring cleaning? It will benefit your partnerships, indirectly, by allowing for more flow. This is good because relationships are the theme all month for you. Your connection to your community and peer groups is activated around the Full MOON on the 8th, and it's time to beef up your immunity this month. It's a good time to take elderberry, immune stimulating mushrooms, and Vitamin C regularly.

SCORPIO/SCORPIO RISING

The need for growth in your one on one relationships continues, as well as authentic individuality. This is a good month for spending time at home, being creative. Listen to some good music and get out your art supplies. This is a healthy balance, to the out-in-the-world boost you are also getting, on a professional level from this Full MOON on February 8.

SAGITTARIUS/SAGITTARIUS RISING

The first half of the month continues your bi-annual MARS return, which is energetically pleasing, are you are pretty much always down for some sort of swashbuckling adventure. The Full MOON on Feb 8 extra light up this feeling, and you may not be able to resist a journey of some sort. This is great, as long as you keep a grip on your wallet. The times they are asking you to take your income and resource management serious, on an unprecedented level. VENUS is in your 5th house this month, and this is where she takes her joy, so allow the fire of VENUS in ARIES, some good old fashioned hedonism.

CAPRICORN/CAPRICORN RISING

The only ones to outdo CANCERS in terms of intensity and challenge in the last year is your tribe. The Sea-goat is sturdy and built to succeed even in harsh climates, but this recent era has put that to the test. This year continues to ask a great deal of you in terms of endurance and of honest confrontation with your shadow self, but the payoff is higher now that JUPITER is here as well. If you are willing to work hard, there will be benefits, although delayed gratification os the theme. This is an excellent month to give some love to your home. What can you change? Bring in some warmth and vigor.

AQUARIUS/AQUARIUS RISING

This month you may feel extra sparkly and attractive as you move around and in your normal pathways, your regular stomping grounds. There is more juice and erotic change there than usual. The Full MOON on Feb 8 takes place in the big-hearted sign of LEO in your partnership sector, asking you to get into your feelings, something that doesn't always come easily to AQUAS. It's worth the effort as it will improve the health of your relationship. Your IQ is always off the charts, but your Emotional Q will benefit from some extra work this month.

PISCES/PISCES RISING

This month there is a great focus on the words you choose to use, and your valuable possessions, and your ability to gather more of them to yourself. The MOON is Full on Feb 8 in your 6th house of health, emphasizing your need to fortify your immune system. This applies to all levels, PISCES, not just physical.

Happy Beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere!

Paetra Tauchert, astrologer

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