I’m finally ready to break through.

Last night, my boyfriend, the Aquarius, and I sat out on my porch and gazed up at the sky.  A few days before he had asked if Mercury was moving out of retrograde yet.  “I feel a shift coming on.”  I assured him that it was but suggested that perhaps he was feeling Venus’s move from quiet, sensitive Pisces into fast and furious Aries instead.  He agreed that could be it.  But sitting outside in the Spring nighttime air, he let me know that it felt like it was time for a cycle to end.  “It’s like I’ve been chiseling away at something for a while now, and I’m finally ready to break through.”  I echoed his feelings, sharing that I too felt like it was time to start putting into action everything I have been pondering about my life.  “Well, just start doing it!”, he pushed.  Later, as I drifted off to sleep, I wondered what life could be like if I put all of the effort that goes into generating my thoughts into generating some action.  I spend so much time and energy thinking myself into circles that my brain must resemble a hamster wheel by now.  It seems like it’s finally time to hop out of the spiral and take some action.  And no better time than this week.

Mercury has been in retrograde for the last few weeks, stalling some of the forward momentum we may have been feeling since the start of the new year.  However, it was also a necessary time for reflection.  Aries can give us all a very ‘full steam ahead’ approach, which can at time get us into a bit of trouble.  We make decisions because they seem exciting or ‘feel right’.  But actually, we’re diving head first into something with unexamined intentions.  We may think we’re choosing a lover or job out of passion or excitement, but it could be the unseen forces of fear or insecurity at the helm.  Of course, the converse is true there too.  What may feel like a fear-based thought is really one centered in one of our deepest desires or needs.

These past few weeks have been meant to clarify our goals and what is motivating our personal charge for them.  And with Venus moving into Aries now, we’ll not only be able to move forward with more clarity and intensity, we’ll also be able to relate to those who can help us in a creative, inspiring way.

So how can this affect each of us more specifically?  Let’s take a brief look at each sign and where you can be putting your energies.  Remember to read your sign’s posting as well as for those of your rising and any other sign you may have an abundance of in your natal chart.

ARIES

What do you want out of life?  I mean it.  What exactly are you trying to achieve?  Do you have a list of things?  A vision board (like myself).  Or perhaps you just have a mental checklist of who you want to be and the life you want to live.  Well, what if I told you that these next few weeks could offer you up a glimpse of ‘having it all’?  Would you believe me?  If not, why?  What’s holding you back from feeling like you have an ability to encounter greatness in life?  This Mercury retrograde may have gotten you second guessing some of the work you’ve been doing, but you may have encountered a lot of strange dreams lately which, believe it or not, were helping you to cleanse out the muck that was attempting to hold you back.  So, get back on the war horse and remember who the hell you are, dammit.  You’re an Aries.  Capable of conquering great lands and weathering the rowdiest of storms.  Enter the world and attack your goals with that attitude and watch as the life you’ve dreamed of hints pointedly at its possibility.

TAURUS

You haven’t been feeling entirely yourself lately.  Something’s been off.  But it hasn’t felt unnerving.  In fact, it’s actually felt refreshing in an odd way to have to step back and examine what the hell is imbalanced in your life.  And you have come to recognize that any sort of imperfection you sense stems from the unhappiness you find inside.  So these last few weeks have been well spent asking yourself the deeper questions about your existence and coming to understand the relationship you have with the inner you.  Now that you have descended deeply into the waters of your own psyche, it’s time to start paddling towards the surface.  Mind you, it’s not a shoot to the top, but more so a slow wade that will get you there.  You still have a couple pans cooking with ideas on how to integrate the strong spiritual life you have inside with the world around you.  So you don’t want to emerge too soon before the skin has had time to harden.  Be patient and you will arise the phoenix in a few weeks time.

GEMINI

I recently had brunch with a friend who was telling me about his Gemini boyfriend who had recently decided to take on a new workout routine.  In four months time, he had packed on twenty pounds of muscle and looked like a completely different man.  I asked if he had changed at all as a person, and he said that there was simply a toughness to him now that seemed to stem out of the confidence his new shell offered him.  I tell you this Gemini because I feel like you all have been packing on the muscle, so to speak, so that your exterior can better reflect the bold drive and passion you have been working to cultivate on the inside.  Now that Mercury is direct, it’s time to make amends with the person you feel destined to be.  You have a strong ideal about what you want to do with your life, and more specifically how you want to be known to the world around you (or at large).  So own the changes you’ve been going through and let everyone see the strong, confident person you are inside.  It will give your career focus, and make you feel like you’re truly a part of the world and not just observing it.

CANCER

There was a sense that you were on your path to greatness, or at last learning to define what that means for you exactly.  Then, Mercury stopped moving and well, so did you.  Now that he’s back with us, and Venus is there to help move him along, it’s time to get back on the wagon and once again start up the process of motivating yourself to ‘up your game’.  Sure, you’ve had some career success and focused in on how you may be able to make your mark on this world in a way that doesn’t infiltrate your integrity.  But still, it’s time to get a little ballsy with your approach.  Perhaps you have been working under a bunch of people.  Now would be the time to venture out to be your own boss.  Your ideas are just as strong as the next crab’s, so be confident and make yourself the star for once.  It’s not always the most comfortable place for you, but you have put in the work and energy that merits it.

LEO

What can I say?  You have been one hard-working Lion these last few weeks, just scrambling to keep up as everyone else is falling apart.  Luckily, you have had a connection to your sense of purpose, so it hasn’t all been towers falling down around you like it’s been for some others.  But there is a sense that you’re feeling a bit unlike you.  Perhaps you’re pausing now to wonder, “wait a sec, I’m a Leo, so why the hell I am the supporting player to everyone else’s drama?”  Yes, you’re usually the one to shine but that hasn’t entirely been the case lately.  Well, it’s simply so that you could take in some more knowledge on how to approach this time in your life with some dignified gusto.  Gone is the Leo who blindly jumps in looking for the acclaim wherever he or she can.  Now is all about showing off who you’ve grown into and sharing what you’ve learned these last few months.  You’ll be funnelling that energy soon enough into your career, but for now, continue to take in as much wisdom as possible.  But start doing it on your terms.  You make the plans.  Don’t follow.  Be a leader.

VIRGO

Virgo, you must be feeling tired.  Life has been forcing you to deal with so much change that you must be wondering what is up and what is down.  Luckily, Mercury’s shift is giving you a burst of clarity around what’s possibly been some puzzling times.  Where you may have thought you had the answer is now a black cloud of fear and doubt.  But light is coming to replace that darkness.  It’s time to take that Venus energy and call on some friends to be creative with you.  Virgos are really good at analyzing themselves into a place of healing, but it sometimes all happens in a vacuum for too long.  Get out and socilaize.  In fact, do what you do best and ORGANIZE a gathering that can be spiritually beneficial to the personal transformation you have been going through.  It’s not too late to have a Spring garden party.  Use the budding season as a metaphor for what is going on for you inside.  Share all the growth you have been doing with those you love and not only will you inspire those around you, but you’ll also attain some choice pieces of knowledge to take with you into this next cycle of maturation.

LIBRA

Mercury’s shift marks an opportunity for you to charge once again full throttle into the personal expansion you undertook at the beginning of the year.  You have still been taking steps toward your latest goals, but these last few weeks slowed you down some and offered reflection and potentially some doubt.  Is this really where you should be?  And what is life going to look like on the other side?  Thankfully, some guardian angels have been popping up to show you how this new life will be a success.  So use them as your archetypes as you glide into the rest of this springtime surge.  Your planet, Venus, is joining the Aries party which will only welcome more people into your circle.  Now is the time to start ushering others into the personal shift you’ve been going through and how you think it’s going to affect your life.  Is there a change of job coming on?  Perhaps a move?  Relationship transitions?  In the area most at play, what do you see on the horizon and how are you sharing it with those in your circle?  By easing others into this new idea of you, you’ll also be easing yourself into it more.

SCORPIO

Have you finally come to terms yet with who you’re meant to be?  You are not meant to live the status quo life.  You are not meant to work the punch in, punch out job that offers no sense of passion.  You are not even probably meant for the white picket fence and the routine of taking the kids to and from wherever they need to go.  If you haven’t gotten that hint yet, well then I offer you this wake-up call.  Right now, life wants you to be vigorously approaching it with a sense of uncertainty.  And an even greater sense of ingenuity.  Your goal is simply to wake up each day and expect the unexpected.  Your roots are not meant to settle into the ground just yet.  Take every opportunity to whisk off at a moment’s notice.  Say yes to that job that isn’t going to force you into a fixed schedule.  And feel free to go out with that person you know is only good for one night.  This summer, you’ll have much less time for play, so be your ever-shifting, penetrating self and leave no stone unturned.  It will remind you of your power that you can then take with you into your next great endeavor.

SAGITTARTIUS

This is the last time I am going to tell you how to be most beneficial for your future right now, so listen up.  Create.  I don’t care if you just wall-paper your house.  Now is the time to make something out of nothing.  You have so much creative energy shooting at you right now, I don’t know how you’re just sitting on that couch staring at nothing.  If you are, you must have a headache from stifling all the work that desperately wants to manifest from you.  This isn’t just about being artistic either.  You don’t need to pick up a paintbrush to feel creative.  Creativity can be expressed by offering ideas or advice to someone.  It can be about plotting the course for a new business venture or home renovation.  It even can take the shape of trying to have a child.  So where in your life is creativity trying to emerge?  You have the next few weeks to put some serious work into something that can ultimately have a positive life-long effect on you.  Isn’t that exciting?  What are you waiting for?  Don’t risk losing out on one of the most positive times in your life.  No one wants to look back and think, “I shoulda…”

CAPRICORN

The concept, or actual place, of where you feel at home these days has taken on a new form.  You’ve either moved, have had a brushstroke with the idea, or have been reconsidering aspects of your current living situation.  More so, you’ve been looking at whether you feel at home in the various areas of your life.  For some, it’s affecting work.  Do you feel comfortable and stable in the situation you’re currently in?  For others, it’s relationships.  Do they offer the sense of family every member of your seemingly independent tribe secretly desires?  Life has offered up some incidents over the last few weeks that have given you clues to the changes you need to make to achieve the grounding you currently crave.  Capricorns like to brush off their sensitvity, but you are still human.  So, make a pact with yourself to go towards the things that emotionally compel you.  If your surroundings feel cold, you’ll easily fall into being cold yourself.  And it’s time to awaken your warmth and let your energy, and your “home”, reflect the internal peace you’re looking to bring into your life at this time.

AQUARIUS

Legally, one should not be allowed to think as much as you.  It can be dangerous for you and your loved ones.  Especially during a retrograde, when self-reflection is amplified.  Hopefully, all of your relationships are still intact and you haven’t said anything you can’t take back.  Let’s also hope that you’ve gotten perspective on how your mind works and more importantly on how it can affect what happens in your life.  Every thought you have creates energy.  If you put negativity into an area of your life, it’s going to multiply.  So how about the reverse?  What if for the next week, you challenged yourself to infuse each moment of your day with a sense of positivity.  Sure, the car might break down or your keys may go missing, but what if you laughed it off without the sarcasm?  Instead put that inherent Aquarian optimism to work and look at it as an opportunity for growth or change.  Activate your uniqueness and approach life in a way that may be counter to the surface pessimism around you.  You like going against the grain, so how about doing it in a way that will affect you for the good?

PISCES

You’ve been looking within over these last few weeks and contemplating how you value certain areas of your life, particularly your own self-worth.  It’s as if every encounter has been offered as a way to measure how much you love yourself.  Woke up with the worst hangover?  “What does that mean for how I value myself?”  Lost money on a bad investment?  “Don’t I value the hard work I did to earn that?”  You get the picture.  But it doesn’t all have to be so heady anymore.  It’s time to put to bed all of the personal questions that could open the door to doubt.  There’s no time!  You set out this year to manifest a new life for yourself that reflects the more confident, independent person you see living as from now on.  So, it’s good to pause and let that old you in for some one-on-one time, but now show him or her the door and get back on track.  Drink a coconut water to cure the hangover and chalk up the financial mistakes to some crappy advice you took in a moment of vulnerability.  Then, take some serious, tangible steps this week to remind you of the personal change you’re still bringing to fruition.

Channel the archetype of Aries

Be a warrior in your life.

Aries craves activity, so now with five planets all charging solidly forward in that sign, there’s no excuse to take some valuable steps forward in life.  Yes, it may have felt for a while like we’ve been chiseling at a stone wall without little success of breaking through.  However, Mercury has some valuable lessons for us.  He wants to reveal a sliver of light in the wall, signifying progress.  But more importantly, Mercury wants us to see that this light is simply a reflection of our own mental awakening, and that when we’re ready to break through it, all we have to do is realize that the wall can easily disintegrate and cease being the challenge that’s been seemingly holding us back.  So channel the archetype of Aries and be a warrior in your life.  Charge forth into the clear horizon that now lays before you and remember that there is nothing truly to fear except some change and your own happiness.