hope you’re all having wonderful holidays. i’m enjoying some much needed time away from my ephemeris. but because today is a very potent full moon, I wanted to share this piece from the vault. This was originally written for the full moon in cancer of january 2022. ignore the technical and just take in the vibes. today’s full moon isn’t quite the same — it’s at an earlier degree, it’s not exactly opposite pluto. but the myth and the hunger and the decay of it all is very similar.
I hope you enjoy!
also, I’m running a lowkey “boxing day” sale — 20% off all readings with the code BOXING. grab yourself a gift with that holiday cash :) through 12/30 at 11:59 PM ET.
I never understood why people cared so much about Shakespeare until I watched The Sopranos. I’ve never been one to latch onto myths or traditional texts. When other astrologers describe planets and transits and archetypes through mythic figures, I zone out. I can honestly say I have no idea what they’re talking about. Like on a certain level, yes, I totally understand that we can see the story of each Venus retrograde through the underworld journey of Inanna. But if we’re talking about felt experience, those stories mean nothing to me. I wish they did but the dots just don’t connect. This is similar to the way I’d experience an empty brain in my college Theatre Studies classes whenever the conversation strayed back to Othello or Hamlet or Richard III.*
*(To be fair, “Now is the winter of our discontent” is very evocative—and this is an essay for another time, but on The Sopranos, winter is always coming.)
Of course, this aversion to Shakespeare, to myth, is mostly due to my own main character syndrome and the inability to relate to anything that isn’t primarily set in the Northeast suburbs at the turn of the millennium. But seriously: who needs Lady Macbeth when you have Carmela? Who needs Puck when you have Paulie Walnuts? Or Iago when you have Ralph Cifaretto? Myths, Shakespeare, all of these traditional stories with none or questionable authorship are meant to be passed down, to be a relatable shorthand. It’s so joyous when we can all find this shared language. This is why mundane means both “dull” and “of the earth.” These stories are nothing and everything at once. When I found The Sopranos, I knew I had found my own, special, canonical text. My own mundane fantasia on baked ziti served at a party in a McMansion after soccer practice themes.
Astrology helps us relate the present to a larger cycle, to engage with our own personal mythologies. Back in early July (remember July?), I wrote to you at the New Moon in Cancer. That lunation was one of the sweetest of 2021. Dreamy and relatively uncomplicated. There was space to share and be vulnerable—but not share too much or be too vulnerable. That New Moon in Cancer on July 9, 2021 was for vibes, not actions.
Like Carmela Soprano crying at the Met, that New Moon in Cancer back in July was very tender. When we arrive with Carmela at The Met (Season 3, Episode 12), the mob wife “with a heart of gold”—she’s a practicing Catholic but no doubt also very complicit in her husband’s crimes—is feeling confused about her marriage, her lifestyle and her place in the world. Though one could write Carmela off as an uncultured suburban housewife, it’s very clear throughout the series that she loves art and relates to the world through it. (Remember how impressed she was when Jackie Jr. took Meadow to see Aida?) She’s potentially going through perimenopause. When she sees the painting of a saint married to a baby, the tears flow. Her daughter Meadow wants to move on to the next exhibit so she can get back to her freshman dorm life at Columbia. But Carmela can’t move away from the painting. She sees herself as the saint and Tony, her mob boss husband, as the baby. She pines for the simplicity of procreation, the ebbs and flows of life.
Meadow: Are you crying? What’s the matter?
Carmela: I don’t know, just look at it.
Meadow (reading): Jusepe de Ribera, The Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine.
Carmela: That’s the Baby Jesus.
Meadow: She’s marrying a baby? Good luck.
Carmela: We all do.
Meadow: What?
Carmela: I shouldn’t be sarcastic. Just look at her.
The little baby’s hand against her cheek.
She is so at peace.
A beautiful, innocent, gorgeous, little baby.
Come on, let’s go eat.
Cancer moons in general can bring up things that are almost too basic. Our needs. Our little hungers. “Let’s go eat.” When the moon is in Cancer, we seek nourishment. What we want is tender but it’s never complicated. But on Monday January 17th at 6:48 PM ET, there is a Full Moon in Cancer that isn’t so simple. Though our needs are clear, the world we live in isn’t. This lunation brings a culmination not only to events that began at the most recent New Moon on January 2nd, but also to things that were seeded at that New Moon in Cancer back on July 9th. This Full Moon feels consequential. Both ancient and urgent. This Full Moon is opposite Pluto.
Tomorrow’s Full Moon complicates what was once a simple, dreamy feeling. By the time we get to Season 6 on The Sopranos, the story has twisted into a place of irreversible darkness. With beloved characters killed off, the FBI looming ever closer to taking Tony down with RICO charges and Meadow and AJ repeating history rather than breaking family curses, Carmela needs to get away. So in “Cold Stones” (S6, E11), she packs her bags and heads out on a girls’ trip with Rosalie Aprile. To Paris. The ancient city of love. This is a dream for Carmela who loves nothing more than shopping, indulging, and seeing good art. But unlike the gentle wonder she found, staring at a Baroque Jesus painting at the Met—a happy cry if you will—Carmela’s awe of Paris quickly turns heavy and depressing. “Who could’ve built all this?” she sighs, filled with awe and reverence on the Pont Alexandre III, looking out at the Eiffel Tower and over the Seine.
When Carmela gets to Paris, for the first time in her life she’s realizing how small and insignificant she really is. She takes in the architecture outside The Louvre and says a prayer at Notre Dame and though she’s able to keep it together for most of their touristy adventures, when she and Rosalie visit the ruins of the Roman thermal baths, she can no longer hold in what’s bursting out of her. She says,
“This city is so old. You think of all the people who’ve lived here, generation after generation, hundreds and hundreds of years. All those lives—God, it’s so sad. I mean it isn’t sad, It just makes you think, makes you look at yourself differently…We worry so much sometimes. That feels like all we do. But in the end it just gets washed away. All of it just gets washed away.”
This Full Moon in Cancer reveals all of our worries, while also revealing how small all of those worries really are. This Full Moon, under the influence of Pluto, reminds us that no matter how heavy something feels, time and power and influence always wash the immediacy away. This lunation reminds us to keep working on the architecture of our lives, even if we won’t live to see its final form, to see it in ruins. It also reminds us to hold onto the things that withstand decay. Brick has consequences. A foundation lasts longer than a fleeting idea. Both can only take so much water.
This Full Moon in Cancer is for assessing what we’ve built since January 2nd or since last July. This Full Moon is also for facing decay, what we’ve left rot since 2018 or even since 2008. There’s a difference between putting something on hold and letting it go. This lunation makes very clear what’s no longer worth the maintenance. It also comes as a reminder that sometimes our biggest problems aren’t so hard to solve. Often, we only need one big push to get us back on track. This lunation allows us, like Carmela, to lean into how small we feel in this apocalyptic world. Mercury is also retrograde through February 3rd and will station direct conjunct Pluto. The words to describe this feeling may not come until then. But with those words, there will be a clearer plan of action. In those words, there’s so much power. “I mean it isn’t sad. It just makes you think.”
Horoscopes follow for each sign. If you know your rising sign, read for that! Tbh, reading any/all of the signs will give you something.
Cancer
Reflecting on failed relationships only gets you so far today. You know what’s crashed and burned and you really do know why. What remains is a stronger sense of yourself and your personal ambitions. Harnessing your magnetism is your next great work. You’re as strong as everything you love.
Leo
Keeping yourself endlessly busy to avoid a deep swim in the sea of feels was always going to catch up to you. Today, it finally does. Let the loneliness that comes up when you just stop sit beside you. How to strike up a conversation with the void? Start by asking its favorite song.
Virgo
Facing the truth of your own deepest desires has been an ongoing process. Whatever your pleasure, you’ve learned that the first step to getting what you want is to stop running away from it. Today’s for crying in the arms of your friends and ignoring their advice. You know what’s best but it’s always nice to be held.
Libra
It’s hard to explain the foundational shifts you’ve been through over the last several years to anyone. This work is private and even if you’re one for public processing, they just don’t know the half of it. This Full Moon brings more information to the surface but this isn’t a mess. You can play with this heartfelt gunk. Not everything has to end.
Scorpio
You might want to cry about how nothing is the same today. But your time is better spent feeling confident in what’s to come in the future. You don’t have to feel optimistic but you should accept that it all must continue. Right now, your dreams are a more nourishing snack than those necessary failures.
Sagittarius
If you’ve been stuck obsessing on everything you don’t yet have then today is the day to pull yourself out of that rut. Scheming your way out of even the roughest situation is in your DNA. Sharing your love and respect with others gets you far. Nothing dissolves a scarcity complex like hyping yourself and your loved ones up with abundance.
Capricorn
If you’re caught in a loop of self doubt, look outside yourself for an affirming slave. The rose balm cleanses your pores, hydrates your hands and seals your kiss. Relationships of all kinds feel supportive today, even if you still bristle at the vulnerability of being known. Connection is progress for your personal orbit.
Aquarius
Taking joy in your daily tasks and putting the world’s big problems aside, if only for a moment, brings you great relief today. You might know how to fix everything but that doesn’t mean you can fix it without doing anything. So just do something tiny. An errand, a bath, a walk with your dog. Nothing is too small to have a purpose.
Pisces
Your community needs you but what about what you need? This Full Moon is for saying what you want to say and letting your audience come to you. What’s yours won’t make you sing for your supper. Today your priority is finding that embrace of total acceptance. It’s scary but oh so satisfying.
Aries
Digging yourself into a pit of despair over where you are or aren’t with your career isn’t doing you any favors today. The only way out is through but getting yourself through is letting yourself rest. This Full Moon is for quiet, private contemplation. Let your next steps be a cozy secret.
Taurus
Big picture-wise: you’re going through an identity crisis but on the day-to-day, you’re experiencing a renaissance. The daily little walks, the afternoon cups of tea, the constant chatter in your group chat: that stuff is what life is really about. Indulge more. Don’t take a single spoon of honey for granted.
Gemini
Your debts aren’t easy to dissolve but that doesn’t mean you should deny your desires. Security doesn’t have to be expensive, it just needs to be wholesome. This Full Moon is about the people who make you feel safe enough to fall asleep on the couch in the middle of the party. Who’s sharing their blanket? This texture? It’s priceless.