​On 14 April, Venus ingresses into its domicile of Taurus where it will remain until May 9. In Taurus, Venus draws us back to sensual pleasures, to the grounding resources of touch, feeling our feet on the ground and our fingers in the earth, our skin pressed against the skin of another, the taste of the world unfolding through flavors on our tongues, the scent of satisfiability lingering in the air around us. Venus in Taurus insists on taking all the time that we need in order to feel more and feel good. Once we have known our capacities for these depths of feeling, they can become a standard for the quality of life we can demand from ourselves and our world. As Audre Lorde writes in “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” “The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves.” Venus in Taurus in an invitation to ground ourselves in our own physical, sensual experiences of satisfaction, and to hold ourselves and our lives to the standard of that fullness of feeling. Co-present with Uranus, Venus is ruling revolutionary terrain, reminding us that our bodies already hold all that we need to know about our own personal and collective liberation. As we not only root deeply into our pleasures but also, as adrienne maree brown writes in Pleasure Activism, “prioritize the pleasure of those who are most impacted by oppression,” we tend the gardens of justice, in which everyone has access to what they need—including feeling good. Throughout the next several weeks, how can you not only prioritize your own pleasure and satisfaction, but also use whatever privilege is available to you to support more pleasure and satisfaction for those who are most marginalized and denied pleasure in our culture?
 
[Image reads VENUS INGRESSES INTO TAURUS 14 April 2021 in light green lettering on a rose colored background]

​March 20 is Oestara, the Vernal Equinox in the northern hemisphere, when the Sun ingresses into Aries—the sign of its exaltation—and we celebrate the start of spring. The day and night are equal in length, held in balance before the lengthening days overtake the shorter nights. It is a time for honoring new beginnings and appreciating the return of life after the months of winter hibernation. This year, as the Sun enters Aries, its ruler Mars is in Gemini just two signs away. The waxing crescent Moon is also in Gemini, while the ruler of Gemini—Mercury—is in Pisces, the sign of its antithesis and fall, conjunct the asteroid Pallas. The Sun is exalted in Aries in part because of the days growing longer than the nights, an indication of the Sun increasing in its influence, authority, and strength. Aries is cardinal fire, sparking the flames of new beginnings and the ignition of initiative. With Mars and the Moon in Gemini, this equinox is also a time for gathering information, formulating perspectives, and determining how to act on the knowledge we’re creating. Mars is applying to a trine with Saturn, encouraging principled, deliberate action and bringing long-term, focused discipline to what we choose to initiate. While Mercury may struggle to manage details in the emotional tides of Pisces, its conjunction with Pallas suggests strategic thinking, the wisdom to direct power well, and tenacity to protect those who are made most vulnerable. Pisces carries currents of compassion and inclusion, so at this equinox, as we celebrate the return of life, may our compassion inspire strategic wisdom for protecting the livability of all. With whatever we are beginning or initiating, may we collect the information and data that we need in order to synthesize actionable analyses with long-term vision. May we boldly speak up and dare to make connections that require us to adapt and change our perspectives. If you ritualize the equinox, I hope these words can inspire your rituals.
 
[First image reads “Astrology of the Wheel of the Year: Oestara, 20 March 2021” in golden letters on a dark green field of flowers and stars. Second image shows the chart for the moment of the Sun’s ingress into Aries, and reads “Oestara, 20 March 2021, 5:38am, Columbus, OH, USA”]

​Today Venus ingresses into Pisces, the sign of its exaltation, where it will remain until March 21. In Pisces, Venus is rendered extraordinary, exceptional, elevated to places of esteem. Venus is an honored guest in the sign of Pisces—ruled by Jupiter—and whatever area of your chart is occupied by Pisces or ruled by Venus may receive special prestige or celebration during Venus’ transit through Pisces. As Venus moves through Pisces, we are reminded that love is an abundant resource that we can cultivate within ourselves, our intimate connections, our communities, our chosen families, and our collective movements for social change. Venus in Pisces teaches us that creating and centering beauty and pleasure in our lives can be strategies for pursuing justice and liberation. Our visions of beauty and our experiences of satisfaction are pathways toward goodness. This is a time for indulging in deep and meaningful care, for cultivating expansive emotional expressiveness and responsiveness, for investing in artistry and creativity that nourishes and enriches our sensory experiences. Throughout the whole time that Venus transits Pisces, it will be moving closer and closer to the Sun, in a condition the Hellenistic astrologers described as “under the beams of the Sun”—meaning that Venus will be obscured from sight in the sky. When a planet is under the beams, it is hidden from view, and its effects may be taking place behind the scenes. This can be a powerful invitation over the next few weeks to devote ourselves to practices of love and beauty, pleasure and connection, not for the sake of posting about it on social media or proving to others who much we are loved or how beautiful our lives are. Rather, this is a time for dedicating ourselves to being fully present to the felt experiences of connection, care, affection, and aesthetic rapture—for ourselves and for those we love, the only witnesses who matter.
 
[Image reads VENUS INGRESSES INTO PISCES 25 February 2021 in rose lettering on a dark green background]

​Today is the first exact square between Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus, one of the biggest stories unfolding in the astrology of 2021. The Moon will be conjunct Uranus in Taurus as the square perfects, suggesting seismic collisions that reverberate throughout our embodied emotional lives. Remember that your body—this body that you are—holds the truth of your most authentic impulses and the keys to your own liberation. If you find yourself crashing into rigid narratives about the ways in which you are insufficient or not enough, your fears of your own body or your own pleasures, shame for what you are feeling or for what you want to feel, remember that the land of your body is sacred. Even if you feel that ground shifting beneath you, ride the currents that carry you toward yourself, your own desires and pleasures—even if that requires moving away from the external restrictions that you have internalized as identities. María Rodríguez writes in Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings: “Against the soul-numbing pressures of everyday life, we come back to our bodies again and again, and look for pleasure there—in dance, in sex, in touch, in the warm sweetness of a ripe fig against our lips. We reach for the touch of joy. And as it brushes past, we are reminded of the gap between our psychic lives as sexual subjects and our lived experience as desiring carnal bodies living in the belly of a hostile world. Because we fuck against the walls of violence, the memory and threat of other forms of touch must forever serve as the constitutive outside to our utopian desires. In a world where so many of us are defined as abject, perverse, old, colored, crippled, illegal, ugly, and outside love, embodied forms of social connection and carnal pleasure become sites of possibility where our survival becomes imaginable.” Come back to your body and look for pleasure there in the midst of whatever internal or external systems might refuse your survival.
 
[Image reads SATURN SQUARE URANUS 17 February 2021 in green letters on a brown background]

​Throughout the year, Jupiter will make a series of supportive aspects with the second benefic, Venus. Venus is the planet of love, union, relationships, desire, pleasure, beauty, aesthetic harmony, and justice. Jupiter is the planet of abundance, expansion, growth, wisdom, faith, and belief. Together they create supportive conditions for collaboration, for investing in shared beliefs and values, for connecting our personal desires and pleasures with something larger than ourselves, for making art and love that can guide us to more expansive wisdom and perspectives of the world. Today Venus will make a conjunction with Jupiter at 12º Aquarius. On May 8, while in its domicile of Taurus, Venus will make a square with Jupiter in Aquarius. On June 3, Venus in Cancer will make a trine with Jupiter in its domicile of Pisces. Then on September 6, Venus in its domicile of Libra will make a superior trine to Jupiter retrograde in Aquarius. Finally, on September 30, Venus in its antithesis or detriment in Scorpio will make a superior square to Jupiter retrograde in Aquarius. All of these aspects could describe auspicious events in the houses occupied by the signs through which Jupiter and Venus are moving—Aquarius for the conjunction, Aquarius and Taurus for the square, Pisces and Cancer for the first trine, Libra and Aquarius for the second trine, then Scorpio and Aquarius for the final square—especially if Venus or Jupiter is an important planet in your chart—like ruling the ascendant for people who are Taurus, Libra, Sagittarius, or Pisces rising. In other words, these aspects will offer opportunities for some measure of ease and support for all of us, and those opportunities might become particularly pronounced depending of factors in your own birth chart or timing cycles through which you may be moving.
 
[Image reads JUPITER CONJUNCT VENUS 11 February 2021 in pink letters on a purple background.]

​Imbolc—one of the eight sabbats in the Wheel of the Year—is the midway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, usually observed from sunset on 1 February until sunset on 2 February. Imbolc is often translated as “in the belly,” describing the forthcoming spring germinating beneath the cold ground of winter. At Imbolc this year, there is a full stellium in Aquarius—what Chris Brennan recently described as an “assembly” of planets—with Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, and Mercury all in residence in the same sign. This puts considerable importance on the sign of Aquarius as well as Saturn—the ruler of Aquarius—who is then responsible for overseeing this assembly. Saturn sets boundaries, rules, and limitations, and in Aquarius, these concerns are often directed toward the future, toward worlds we are building, and that which exceeds the parameters of the old order. As the five planets convene to take part in creating new structures as the old institutions fall away, they are all in a whole-sign square to both Uranus and Mars in Taurus. The Sun is exactly square Mars, both at 13º. Building new worlds founded in ideological integrity amidst challenging upheavals assaults from those who feel disempowered is difficult work. The disseminating Moon in Libra suggests a time for sharing equity, equality, and justice. At this Imbolc, may we gather in our own assemblies, developing clear parameters and strategies for bringing new worlds to term. Whether in group or solitary rituals, may we pour our love and intentions into justice, community care and accountability, and everyone having access to all that they need in the worlds to which we will give birth.
 
[Image 1 reads Astrology of the Wheel of the Year Imbolc 1 February 2021 in gold letters on a background collage of stars and flowers. Image 2 shows the chart for Imbolc on 1 February 2021 at sunset, 5:48pm in Columbus, OH, USA]

Today Mercury stations retrograde at 26º Aquarius, and it will station direct at 11º Aquarius on February 21. Mercury retrograde periods are a time of reflection and review, particularly in terms of communication, the transmission of ideas, how we access and process information, how we articulate our perspectives, as well as the movements of material goods and travel. During these periods, things often do not go according to plan. It is best to use this time to read and re-read, take the time to develop multiple possible plans and contingencies, holding off making final decisions or determinations—because you very likely will not have all the information that you need in order to come to such conclusions—and practice listening more closely, especially when miscommunication happens. Look to the area of your chart occupied by Aquarius to determine what part of your life is potentially undergoing review. During this retrograde cycle, Mercury will make a clarifying conjunction with the Sun on February 8, a challenging square with Mars in Taurus on February 10, a supportive conjunction with Venus on February 13, and an affirming conjunction with Jupiter on February 14. While we won’t fully gather or understand all the details of this retrograde until after Mercury stations direct, this period from February 13-14 when Mercury is enclosed by the benefics could describe stumbling into helpful conversations or supportive connections, even if we don’t yet fully understand how we got there or what their influence will be.
 
For more about the astrology of the year, check out my Astrology Guide for 2021, available for immediate download.
 
[Image reads MERCURY STATIONS RETROGRADE AT 26º AQUARIUS 30 January 2021 in gray letters on a dark purple background]

​Today Mars will make a conjunction with Uranus, both at 6º. This conjunction comes a week after the square between Saturn and Mars, just three days after Jupiter makes an overcoming square to Uranus, and a month before the first Saturn/Uranus square—all big stories for the year that cut around and through one another. Jupiter is still within one degree of the square with Uranus at the time of its conjunction with Mars, offering immense affirmation to this conjunction and potentially enlarging whatever force Mars and Uranus will describe. Separating from the restrictions and limitations of Saturn, Mars encounters Uranus that demands breaking away from the establishment. Mars is in its antithesis or detriment in Taurus, a place as far from its home in Scorpio as it can be. In Taurus, it must make use of unfamiliar resources. Fixed earth is slow, sustained, and deliberate, which can be challenging for assertive and impulsive Mars. Yet Uranus, the planet of upheaval, disruption, and revolutionary change is in a long process of breaking up sedimented and static patterns in whatever area of our charts are occupied by Taurus. The conjunction with Mars can be like setting the charge to a landmine or a match thrown into explosive materials. The assertive, impulse qualities of Mars may be propelled by Uranus’ drive and amplified by the separating square from Jupiter. Expect upheaval perhaps moving faster than it should. We may not even fully recognize or understand the implications of this conjunction until November 17 when Mars will oppose Uranus from Scorpio, in its domicile and strength. This is how a combustion of radical change in a fixed earth sign can unfold—with longer, slower implications that are nevertheless irrevocable in their effects.
 
For more about the astrology of the year, check out my Astrology Guide for 2021, available for immediate download.
 
[Image reads MARS CONJUNCT URANUS 20 January 2021 in violet letters on a dark red background]

​Today Jupiter in Aquarius will make a superior square to Uranus in Taurus—both at 6º. Jupiter is the planet of growth, expansion, and abundance, coherence and the power to affirm. Uranus is the planet of revolutionary change, often in the forms of disruption and upheaval. Today and the days surrounding this aspect could hold a wave of potential or promise for embodying radically new possibilities, for moving in revolutionary relationships to our own bodies, our own pleasures, and one another. In the midst of so much social and political upheaval—particularly in the United States where I live—it matters what revolutionary movements we encourage to grow and where we are rooting such movements. You might take time to observe: what impulses and desires are being magnified, amplified, and affirmed? What kinds of worlds could such longings bring into being? Listen to the longings of your body for what kinds of change are necessary. It may be, in fact, that the series of squares between Saturn and Uranus and the hard aspects between Saturn and Mars throughout this year are in some way reacting to this burst of affirming revolutionary potential that we receive as Jupiter makes this square with Uranus. Notice what new possibilities feel affirmed or supported right now, and see if you can hold onto this belief in what is possible as we move through the more challenging aspects between Uranus, Saturn, and Mars throughout the rest of this year.
 
For more about the astrology of the year, check out my Astrology Guide for 2021, available for immediate download.
 
[Image reads JUPITER SQUARE URANUS in bright yellow letters on a dark gold background]

I am so excited about this event!
COMING 5 FEBRUARY 2021:
Fridays for the Future - Monthly Virtual Movement Gathering
sponsored by
Livable Futures and FLUX + FLOW : Dance and Movement Center

Michael J. Morris will guide us in Witchdancing, a Butoh-based movement ritual practice developed from their own ongoing practices in both witchcraft and Butoh, and inspired by the work of Alkistis Dimech, Tatsumi Hijikata, Kazuo Ohno, Anna Halprin, and Keith Hennessy. This practice asks: what if a dance is also a spell with which we conjure our bodies and the worlds in which they live? In Witchdancing, we move through a continuous series of images, qualities, and states, engaging in a metamorphosis of the body. The movement is improvisational and requires no previous dance experience. The practice will be supported by an original soundscore by Moxy Martinez.
5 February 2021
5:00-6:30pm EST on Zoom
Donation based workshop: As participants in reparative justice, we offer all our workshops free of charge for BIPOC and by donation for others.
Register here: https://www.flux-flow.com/events/2021/2/5/fridays-for-the-future-michael-j-morriswww.flux-flow.com/events/2021/2/5/fridays-for-the-future-michael-j-morris

Throughout 2021, Mars will be making a series of hard aspects with Saturn: a square, an opposition, and another square. Today Mars in Taurus is making an exact square with Saturn in Aquarius. Hard aspects between Mars and Saturn were the most challenging aspects in ancient astrology. Saturn restricts and refuses, whereas Mars charges into combat, intent on severing and separating, the aggressive drive to take action and see results. Mars pushes for movement and momentum, whereas Saturn holds tightly to slowness and restraint. Mars and Saturn made two squares with one another in 2020 while Mars was in Aries and Saturn was in Capricorn—both in their own domiciles—but now Mars is in its antithesis or detriment in Taurus, a weakened position by sign as it is overcome by Saturn in its second domicile of Aquarius. Already fixed earthly Taurus challenges Mars to slow down and attend to material needs of the body. This could describe a prohibition on action, a refusal of forward motion or momentum, and the exhaustion that comes when we try to move through an immovable barrier. If there are actions you are trying to take or movements you are working to mobilize, expect to encounter resistance or refusal that has the potential to exhaust already limited or depleted resources. What if you instead moved at the pace of land and bones, the earth beneath your feet and flesh? This Mars/Saturn story will continue to unfold through the opposition in November, so build up your resources for challenges that are yet to come.

For more about the astrology of the year, check out my Astrology Guide for 2021.

Today marks an entire year of writing daily astrology posts—first on my blog and Facebook, then on Instagram and Twitter. I have learned so much from sharing these daily contemplations of the movements of the planets, especially as they began to constellate with the work of feminist and queer writers who shape how I see the world. This practice has developed into a really beautiful kind of bibliomantic astrology—or astrological bibliomancy—where the words I put to the dance of the planets draw me into deeper relationships with the writing that has made my life more possible.

And now it is time for a hiatus. I’m taking a break from daily posts, at least for the next month. I’m going through my own intense transits right now—amidst a global pandemic and ongoing struggles for justice as well as the start of an academic semester in which I have a heavy teaching load. I need to ground, reorient, and find how the work needs to come through during this time. I may return to writing these dailies. I may need to find ways to support this work financially if I continue. It’s possible that it will take a new form on the other side of this hiatus.
​
I will probably continue to post from time to time as I take these weeks to reorient. But in the meantime, here are places you can connect with my work:
-I am booked up for consults through the end of September, and I have a waitlist for October. I will be adding my availability for October to my scheduling calendar later in August. You can book a consult with me on the Bookings page.
-You can find a really lovely selection of podcast interviews I’ve given in the last year—with Daniel Bernal and Drew Levanti on Queer Skies, Mary Grace Allerdice on the home|body podcast, Sabrina Monarch on Magic of the Spheres Podcast, and Mel LeFara on Energetic Principles Podcast—on the Resources page.
-You can register for the Queer Astrology Conference 2020 at:
 https://qac.queerastrology.com/learn-about-and-register-for-qac20/register/ to get access to an amazing set of talks, including two of mine.
-And you can purchase an all-access pass to the Fresh Voices in Astrology Summit 2020 to access my talk "Celestial Corporeality: Astrology and the Body," available here: https://www.freshvoicesinastrology.com/all-access-pass/.

I am so grateful for your time and attention, and I look forward to how we can continue to co-create meaningful experiences, healing, and liberation in the days ahead.