A SOLAR ECLIPSE & A NEW NAME
DESIRE LINES 001
Welcome to DESIRE LINES.
That’s right, after almost 10 years of moon missives, this project is ready for a new name.
moon missives is dead / LONG LIVE DESIRE LINES
So what is (a) DESIRE LINE(S)?
To be basic/quote Webster’s Dictionary, a desire line is “an unplanned route or path (such as one worn into a grassy surface by repeated foot traffic) that is used by pedestrians in preference to or in the absence of a designated alternative (such as a paved pathway).”
Desire lines are shortcuts that defy planning.
Desire lines are intuitive, creative, and have authority issues. “Desire Lines” is also the title of my favorite song by Deerhunter.
This project started as a “fun, cool email” every new and full moon. It has become so much more than that. This will still be a place for astrology and art and culture. We will be delineating patterns, and making astrological events feel like “a birthday party for no one in particular.”1 But this is no longer just a cute little forecast/treat on the new and full moon. Maybe it never was. It’s a place for exploring astrological patterns, desire, mental health, spiritual obsessions, and the role of divination in culture and technology. We’re making connections, taking shortcuts, and honoring big hearts.
As I write this, I’m also about to move on from my weekly and monthly horoscope column at PureWow. After almost seven years of never missing a deadline, I deeply empathize with my fellow Pisces, Susan Miller, who can never get her ‘scopes out on time. Even though I dragged her to hell for it back in 2014. As easy as some people make it look, writing horoscopes is not easy. Though it might read as a puff piece, every little puff is made with care and a lot of data analysis. I’m honestly still burned out from the year and a half in 2023-24 when I was producing those horoscopes, writing monthly forecasts here, and doing my weekly forecast pod. Making the donuts for real. And that was a lot of donuts. Anyway, I know quite a few of you reading found me over on PureWow, and I would love to hear more of your thoughts on those ‘scopes as I hang up my apron.
Moving forward, the plan is to show up here on the regular. I want to be your Astro DJ with a regular weekly show2. Updates will be for everyone. Paid subscribers will get longer deep dives on astro transits, astro-cultural patterns, my harrowing and very entertaining personal stories, and sneak peeks of other things I’m working on. I also would like to start doing monthly informal meetups/journaling hangs with paid subscribers.
An update on this week’s eclipse, once-in-37-year Saturn-Neptune conjunction, Venus rising as an evening star, and much more will hit your inbox on Sunday, February 22.
It’s worth noting that I originally planned to announce this “rebrand” many months ago. In fact, my failure to launch tells a good story about how the best timing isn’t always for what you think it’s for. Also, please know, when I share a story about me, I’m inviting you to think about where you were on these dates too.
The title DESIRE LINES first came to me on April 2, 2025, while I was staring at the ducks in Prospect Park. Venus was retrograde in Pisces with Saturn, Neptune and the North Node. There was beautiful astrology that day. I was taking steps to pull myself out of my mind prison. That mind prison being an ongoing mental health spiral and extreme financial stress. All of which had taken over my life since the last time Venus was retrograde in Pisces: April 2017. I was looking at all my spending and debts with clear eyes, watching hours upon hours of YouTube videos about complex trauma (shoutout to my girlie, Heidi Priebe and the YouTube algorithm gods), in deep bureaucratic hell applying for a loan to cover my rental arrears (no shout out to the NYC Human Resources Administration), and taking a long break from Instagram. Creative ideas were coming to me, but I needed to pull myself out of the hole I was in first.
I decided that June 26, 2025—a healthy almost three months away, and a very auspicious date astrologically—would be the day I announced the rebrand. But still, other things needed to be taken care of first. Instead of launching the rebrand, I closed my case in housing court, and thanks to my amazing Gen Z lawyer, I got a small settlement from my landlords. Around the same time, I got a more-or-less official diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I have suspected I have OCD since I was 143, over 20 years ago, but despite feeling seen by Hannah Horvath’s OCD meltdown arc on GIRLS, and often spending hours per day trapped in compulsive loops, I never thought it was “bad enough” to do anything about it. On June 26, 2025, I started a therapy workbook titled Breaking the Rules of OCD. Zohran Mamdani won the primary for New York City mayor. It was a lucky day in a different way.
After June came and went, I set my sights on a different date for the DESIRE LINES release: October 19, 2025, yet another cute astrology day. It was just before a new moon in Libra with Venus also in Libra, her stylish home sign. As this date approached though, once again, other things took priority. I met with a psych nurse and began taking Prozac— a drug that I used to think I wasn’t “sick enough” to try, and can now say has totally changed my life. Crazy that my thoughts don’t have to be spinning around like a ceiling fan all day. I also picked up not one, not two, but three new part time jobs to, ironically, give me more freedom to do what I actually want to do with this whole writing and astrology thing. Self employment can become its own kind of prison when you’re making choices out of survival instead of desire or energy or joy.
All of that was coming to a head on October 19, so I didn’t release DESIRE LINES. That day I took a nap, saw a lot of friends, and went to my friend Jared’s lovely Levain-cookie-filled birthday party. It was, again, a sweet day in a different way.
I plan to share more about all of this soon because, to be honest, my struggles over the last several years are a great astrological case study. Vedic astrologers call this the Sade Sati. In fact, after last year’s solar return reading with my personal astrologer, where we got into the weeds of my recent misfortunes, his follow up email included asking me if he could use my year as an example for an upcoming lecture. You see, the terrible things that befell me are what we call #astrologergood, or when something bad happens, but the astrology plays in perfect harmony. After giving him permission to tell my story on a Zoom filled with a bunch of astro nerds, I thought to myself, If he thinks my story is a good one, why don’t I? If he’s telling my story to a bunch of strangers, why don’t I?
This week, on February 17, 2026, there was a Solar Eclipse in Aquarius. I shared the first horoscopes I ever wrote on February 15, 2018—the last time there was a Solar Eclipse in Aquarius. If 2018’s eclipse was a contraction, today’s eclipse is an expansion. Back in 2018, I was focusing on something, and now I’m ready to branch out. Perhaps you are too.
Eclipse season is intuitive and creative. Eclipse season opens up portals and directs us to short cuts. Eclipse season is the time for desire lines.
TL;DR: this newsletter is now called DESIRE LINES! more regular writing is coming! mark your cal for Sunday 2/22! saying goodbye to my horoscope era <3
UPDATES:
I’m teaching a class! IRL in NYC. HOW TO WRITE A HOROSCOPE with The School of Making Thinking. Monday nights March 30-April 20, 6-8pm, at Abrons Arts Center. I’ve heard some cool kids are already signed up. Register here. Fee is sliding scale!!!
I’m reading: One Bad Mother by my friend, Ej Dickson!!! and I have also started The Power Broker. Please be in touch if you have also read/are reading The Power Broker.
I’m watching: The Traitors (though, at this point, only to thirst over Rob Rausch, my Virgo king); also finally watched Sick of Myself (2023). Narcissism is IN for Saturn and Neptune in Aries, babes!
I’m eating: Adding this update bullet because I have a Mars-Jupiter conjunction in Taurus, and there was a time in my life in which the main thing I shared online was poetry about vinaigrettes. And I’d like to get back to her vibe. Currently making a white bean, fennel, and cabbage soup. With lots of garlic and lemon. Yum.
“A birthday party for no one in particular” is how Justin Kuritzkes described the seasonal release parties for the moon missives print magazine project. It’s what I want everything I do to feel like.
one of my personal rituals is spending Saturday mornings with Love Injection on The Lot Radio
What clued me into the fact that I might have OCD myself was Vlad’s monologue about his own OCD habits toward the end of the movie CAMP (2003). (If you know, you know.) I remember signing onto AOL to IM my friend Jackie about this revelation. She was very freaked out.
love this so much! condragulations and ty for introducing this completely necessary concept (a desire line) to my life 😱🤞🩵
Eternal fan. Here for all of the expansion.